Setback affects seven other counties in region
A regional broadband project promising affordable fiber-to-home connections in Rappahannock and seven other counties will be delayed by one year, All Points Broadband CEO Jimmy Carr said in an interview Monday.
The project was initially scheduled for completion in Rappahannock and the other participating counties by mid-2025, but the updated timeline shows completed construction by June 2026. Network activation will begin in September 2025 and continue on a rolling basis through June 2026 as more residents become connected, Carr told the Rappahannock News and Foothills Forum.
All Points, along with the Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission (NSVRC), Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) and Dominion Energy are working to bring universal broadband to the counties using state and federal funding awarded from the 2022 Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) grant.
The bulk of the federal funding awarded to All Points to complete the project must be spent by the end of 2026 — if it isn’t spent, the money must be returned.
Carr said the team modified its initial design of the fiber network and will be increasing the amount of fiber buried underground, rather than aerial installations using utility poles. This method is faster, Carr said, but more expensive.
All Points will apply for additional funds through the federal Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program and will know in the spring if it received additional funding.
“Notwithstanding everything we have done, things are still not moving as quickly as we all want them to, and we wanted to get ahead of the potential risk about not finishing by the end of 2026,” Carr said. “We didn’t want to wait until it was too late to do something about that, and we’re trying to be very proactive in managing exactly that risk.”
Carr and NSVRC Executive Director Brandon Davis shared the updated timeline at a meeting Monday with the eight-county “project team” at the regional commission office in Front Royal. The Rappahannock News and Foothills Forum were not permitted access to the meeting but received the presentation from Carr via email.
Carr said by the end of 2025, service will be available in portions of each of the eight counties.
The seven other counties being served by this project are Augusta, Frederick, Clarke, Fauquier, Page, Warren and Rockingham. About 77 miles of fiber has been installed in the region, Carr said, with most of the construction occurring in Augusta County. The first users in the agreement could be connected as early as the end of this month, Carr said.
Members of All Points will update the Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors on the project’s progress at the supervisors’ January meeting at the county courthouse.
This is a developing story
Foothills Forum reporter Tim Carrington contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: All Points Broadband will apply for federal funding through the BEAD program next year.
