All Points Broadband, Dominion Energy, Northern Neck Electric Cooperative and Four Counties Announce Regional Broadband Initiative for Northern Neck
Program began October 1st!
Press Release:
All Points Broadband, Dominion Energy, Northern Neck Electric Cooperative and the Counties of King George, Northumberland, Richmond, and Westmoreland have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to advance a regional broadband partnership that aims to deliver fiber-optic broadband service to unserved households and businesses in Virginia’s Northern Neck Region.
All Points Broadband, Dominion Energy, Northern Neck Electric Cooperative and the Counties of King George, Northumberland, Richmond, and Westmoreland have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to advance a regional broadband partnership that aims to deliver fiber-optic broadband service to unserved households and businesses in Virginia’s Northern Neck Region.
"Connecting unserved communities to broadband makes online learning, telehealth, and telework more accessible, which is particularly necessary as the COVID-19 pandemic forces us to rely on virtual services,”
To read the full Press Release: https://news.dominionenergy.com/news?item=137570
Normally I would recommend to put down the phone and leave the computer, but in this COVID age there are undeniable benefits to connecting online. What does that mean for Colonial Beach? Our schools have contracted for hundreds of hotspots to make virtual learning even a possibility in this region, and even with a hotspot, streaming live video for class is a real challenge. The town proper is served with broadband service from Atlantic Broadband already but what it means for our bedroom neighborhoods in Westmoreland and King George is even more significant and will enable the Northern Neck to finally have wide access to education, health, jobs, and other internet based resources. This is exciting for us because the more service opportunity that passes through our region the more we will attract the viability of higher speed technology. We need to keep up with the digital needs in our community from the Dahlgren Naval Base for teleworkers, healthcare you can stay home for, or our children's virtual learning.
This has been in the works for some time now, but is finally funded and underway!
See prior article from 2017 in Free Lance Star: