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INTERIM REPORT TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS FROM THE RAPPAHANNOCK COUNTY BROADBAND COMMITTEE OCTOBER 2018 Glossary Broadband: The official FCC broadband definition is a minimum of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. The Committee has also been mindful of other important factors, including affordability and reliability. DSL: Digital Subscriber Line by which a computer connects to the Internet at high speeds using telephone lines. The maximum range for DSL without a repeater is 18,000 feet from the nearest telephone switching station. Fiber: Internet connection in which data is delivered in light signals via small, flexible glass wires. Internet Service Providers (ISPs): Businesses that provide internet services to individuals and businesses. This includes through fiber, cable, satellite, DSL, and other wireless service connection options. In Rappahannock County, these include: • All Points Broadband • Shentel • AT&T • Sonic • Blaze • T-Mobile • Century Link • Verizon • Comcast • Virginia Broadband • Piedmont Broadband Landline: a wired telephone connection typically provided over copper service lines, which can also be used to provide DSL internet service. Microwave Antenna: a physical transmission device used to broadcast microwave transmissions between two or more locations, often used to relay high-speed connections to cell towers and wireless internet service providers. Typically they require an unobstructed “line of sight” to each other. Voice over IP (VoIP): Delivers voice communications over an internet connection similar to a traditional wired telephone service. Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs): Provide internet services to homes and businesses over a wireless connection typically using a network of antennae that are fed with high-speed wired or wireless connections. In Rappahannock, this includes Piedmont Broadband and Virginia Broadband. A helpful site for other terms is “Broadband 101: A glossary of terms” found at https://www.ruralmn.org/publications/broadband101-glossary Page 1 of 50 Background The Rappahannock County Broadband Committee was established by the County’s Board of Supervisors on November 7, 2016 after a public outreach and application process. Appointed members were: William Dant, Casey Eitner, Edward Goshorn, Jr., Michael Mahoney, Todd Summers, and Alan Zuschlag. Supervisor John Lesinksi has chaired the Committee, and Casey Eitner has since resigned. The County Administrator has also attended and participated in meetings as well as assisted in generating the required public notifications. The Committee’s goals established at its outset were to: • Review and update the most recent County Broadband Report with current information, technological advances, and changes since the last publication in 2007. • Create and maintain an inventory of public and private broadband assets, including fiber/conduit in the right of way, towers and other assets. • Research/survey residents, local public and emergency agencies, schools, health care providers, utility and service providers to define wants and needs, with specific focus on ensuring coverage for mission critical needs. • Research/survey current IT providers, i.e. Century Link, Virginia Broadband, Piedmont Broadband, Comcast, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc. to understand their associated costs, inventory, new technologies, and interests in providing broadband to the County. • Meet with Orange County government, and collect information on their fiber initiatives, costs, and advantages, if any, for Rappahannock County. • Understand initiatives of FirstNet (State of Virginia’s committee to review broadband throughout the State for first responders) and the impact to the County. • Research opportunities for grants, financial assistance and non-taxpayer funding options. • Summarize data collected and provide an overview to the Board of Supervisors and County residents as well as current and potential service providers. • Recommend possible options and associated costs for improving broadband access. Progress Made Since the Committee’s establishment, it has worked diligently to achieve these goals with the overarching objective of improving affordable broadband access to County residents. It has had some notable achievements, including: Page 2 of 50 • Established a web site to ensure public access to information about the Committee (www.RappBroadband.org). • Held a series of meetings to allow Committee members and the public to work together to raise awareness about and discuss options for addressing the County’s broadband needs. • Completed an inventory of County assets relevant to broadband access. • Completed a County-wide needs assessment in partnership with the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) – attached as Annex 1. • Helped prompt expansion of high-speed fiber connections to the County’s public library, visitor center, schools, and government offices (this work is currently underway). County Broadband Needs The committee commissioned a country-wide assessment of broadband needs to allow better understanding of where there is and isn’t adequate coverage. This was a major undertaking that included distribution and collection of paper surveys, notification of an online version using postcards to County households, a public information session, and outreach efforts to encourage participation. About one in five county residents responded to the survey. Not surprisingly, it found significant diversity in access to and interest in high-speed internet. Major findings include: • While 86% of County residents have access to broadband, most (70%) report that it is inadequate, expensive and/or unreliable. • Almost half of households with broadband access rely on satellite or DSL connections that are expensive, limit how much can be downloaded at high speed, and are often much slower than advertised. • About one-fifth of households that responded to the survey have children in school, and of these 12% has no internet access at home. Even for those with internet, the majority rely on inadequate, expensive and/or unreliable services (satellite, DSL, cellular). For businesses, the situation is mixed: • 93% of businesses use the Internet to support their business • 29% of businesses report their Internet service is unacceptable. Of these, 76% depend on inadequate, expensive, and/or unreliable connections (Dial up, T1, Cellular, DSL, Satellite) • 33% (of all respondents) have home-based businesses • 4% of businesses have NO Internet access available Page 3 of 50 Figure 1: Residential Access Types Figure 2: Business Access Types Source: The Path Forward: Community Broadband Assessment for Rappahannock County Virginia, November 2017. The Committee has also noted the connections between broadband access and other communication challenges for the County. Traditional wired telephone service has been problematic for a number of households, who report long outages, poor quality, and inadequate responsiveness by providers. This has raised interest in expanding wireless options for telephone and internet for personal and business uses that could augment or replace aging copper-wire infrastructure. Cellular telephone and broadband services are also increasingly identified as necessary both as a backup to wired services but also for residents and visitors who need to communicate when out of home including for emergency purposes. Significant portions of the County are not served by cellular providers though your recent approval of a communications tower in Sperryville will help in that area. This tower will host equipment for at least one local wireless internet provider (Piedmont Broadband) as well as provide access to cellular broadband through the two companies that have committed to the tower (T-Mobile and Shentel/Sprint). Unfortunately, coverage in the southern part of the County (Woodville, Scrabble, Boston, as well as much of FT Valley south to Madison County) will not be improved by the Sperryville tower. A new tower in Boston has been erected recently, with only one local service provider (Piedmont Broadband) committing to using it; CWS, the company that builds and operates these and other towers, indicated in its most recent meeting with the Board of Supervisors that both T-Mobile and Shentel/Sprint have committed to the Boston tower. The Committee is aware of no plans to address the area of the County south of Sperryville along FT Valley Road. Fiber internet services, which are being expanded to the library, schools, and government offices, offer the opportunity for state-of-the-art broadband access as well as telephone service through “voice over IP” protocols. This may also result in considerable savings to the County, which now leases expensive Page 4 of 50 T1 copper lines to feed the emergency dispatch center at the Rappahannock County Sheriff’s Office. Fiber will offer greater speed and reliability at lower cost. Access to fiber for other businesses and households, however, is likely to be constrained by deployment costs. One option being utilized in other Virginia counties is a partnership between internet service providers and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC). It has recently indicated an interest in utilizing its network of electric poles to support distribution of fiber cables, though the Committee is not aware of specific plans for this initiative. So while broadband internet, cellular communications, and wired telephone service have distinctive features and issues, they are also increasingly interrelated. Interim Conclusions

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