Loudoun County Officials Take Step Forward Toward Bringing Broadband To The Rural Western Part Of The County

Heather Curtis
WMAL.com

WASHINGTON (WMAL) – People who live in western Loudoun County may soon get something they haven’t had before: broadband Internet. Eastern Loudoun County’s one of the most highly Internet connected areas in the country according to CEO of Columbia Telecommunications Corporation Andrew Afflerbach, but Internet access is poor in the rural Western part of the county.

Afflerbach told the county’s finance committee at a meeting last week that they surveyed residents in the western part of the county and found 96% have some form of Internet connection, but half of the respondents said they have low to moderate satisfaction with speed and reliability.

Finance committee member Geary Higgins said they have been working to expand broadband to the west for at least two terms. They have now taken a major step forward toward achieving that goal.

Afferbach said because the homes in that part of the county are so far apart, it would cost $6 to 9,000 to run fiber to individual homes for a grand total of $130 million. It would only cost $16 million in total if the county partners with a private company to install a backbone network of fiber optic cable that would get the cable within a few miles of each home. That would bring the cable close enough to homes for Internet providers to affordably run direct connections to homes. The finance committee decided to further explore the latter option.

“I think this is a cost effective option for the board versus a $130 million option of the privately owned system that the county would own and operate by itself forever,” said finance committee member Tony Buffington.

Buffington said they would never get support for the more costly option.

Afflerbach said the county would be able to pay back its share of the cost for building the backbone network in ten years.

The committee recommended the entire board of supervisors take up the proposal the next time they talk about the budget.
==============================================