Surry County Broadband Project

 Project Update 12/7/2011

The County is coordinating construction with Mid Atlantic Broadband Cooperative as they extend their Virginia fiber network from Emporia to Isle of Wight and passing through the Town of Surry.  The MBC construction contractor RACO will install Surry County fiber along with MBC fiber from the east side of the town on Colonial Drive (approximately in front of Dollar General) to Rolfe Highway south, west to the Surry West Business Center, and south on Rolfe Highway into Wakefield.  An interconnection POP (point of presence) will be established just west of the business park where the Surry County fiber will have a network connection to the MBC network.

The connection to the MBC network is critical for Surry County as it allows MBC member providers to access Surry County and offer services over the County’s network.  Up until now, Verizon was the only provider with a physical presence in the County and providers have not been able to offer competitive services using Verizon’s lines.   Now that Surry will have an alternate pathway in and out of the County, we anticipate competition can finally occur!  The County’s goal is to enable additional providers to access customers in Surry, creating a competitive environment that will bring higher speeds at lower costs for our citizenry.  Revenues generated from leasing access to the network and towers will be based on agreements for transport negotiated with providers and used to support the maintenance and operation of the broadband infrastructure. 

The FCC definition of broadband is still defined as a minimum speed of 200 Kbps in each direction, an advanced services defined as a minimum of 768 Kbps in each direction.  The FCC is currently working on the National Broadband Plan which aims to define broadband at several megabits per second.  Surry’s fiber network will be able to provide service at speeds far in excess of the FCC minimums and even faster than services typically available in urban areas.  The County is looking for providers to offer services ranging from 10 – 100 Mbps via the new Surry network.  The current generation of fiber network equipment would deliver up to 1 Gbps per customer if desired. 

This project is considered the County’s first phase of broadband deployment and the CDBG grant will provide fiber connections to the following facilities:

1. Edwards Hams
2. Windsor Mills
3. Surry Health Department
4. Surry Parks & Recreation
5. Surry Library
6. Surry Fire Department
7. Surry Volunteer Rescue Department
8. Surry Office of Youth
9. Surry Workforce Development Center
10. Surry Circuit Court
11. Surry Animal Pound

In addition to the fiber ‘backbone’ the County’s project includes building three (3) towers to facilitate wireless broadband services.  Buggs Island Telephone was also awarded federal funding to build out their wireless network across fifteen (15) counties.  Their project begins close to their headquarters in Bracey, Virginia and expects to reach Surry County next year.  Their wireless project involves placing equipment on towers and using local service providers to offer services directly to residents and small businesses.  Buggs Island is a MBC member and will use MBC’s network to provide the wired connection back to their network operating center in Bracey and onto the Internet.  Buggs Island had approached Surry County prior to the award of their federal grant and as they are now working hard to implement their project under a strict grant timeline, they have not been available to update Surry County on the status of the project.  The sites that have been initially selected for tower placement include:

Further analysis of the three proposed tower sites is in process.  The first step in determining the optimum site selection is line of sight analysis between each tower and the areas to be served.  Staking of the sites will follow for surveying and soil analysis for tower engineering.  Additionally, we are inquiring of cellular providers as to their interest in also utilizing one or more of the County’s proposed towers to improve cellular service.  Should the County be successful in attracting more than one tenant for the towers, the lease revenue would be used to support future phases of fiber deployment.   We anticipate tower construction will not occur until late spring or early summer and will be the final segment of the project’s construction.

The County, Windsor Mills and Edwards Hams are considered the network anchor tenants that will support this first phase of broadband network deployment.  The network has been designed to accommodate backbone expansion and last mile build-out to Surry businesses and residential areas.  With the backbone in place, providers desiring to offer services in Surry could immediately provide service to the eleven (11) anchor tenants.   They could then build their own last mile drops to additional businesses or expansions to residential areas, using the County’s backbone to get back to the MBC network and out of the county to the Internet and their network operating centers located in other parts of Virginia.

The Surry network design and draft construction drawings are complete and our permit application is being submitted to VDOT this week.  Both MBC and Surry fiber will be constructed underground and within the VDOT road rights of way.  Surry’s environmental review is complete, but we are waiting for MBC to receive federal clearance before their permitting and construction activities can commence.  Surry County has provided a materials staging location for the fiber contractor RACO at the business center.  We are hopeful that construction in Surry will commence within the next 30-45 days.