(TNS) — There remains yet hope amid various new options in the works for several thousand Culpeper addresses still waiting for high-speed internet though they’ll have to wait a while long.

Private internet providers identified as able to serve the county have been selected to potentially receive $11.3 million in preliminary new federal funding through BEAD. This would connect 1,854 underserved locations, according to the Culpeper County Department of Economic Development, notified last week of the award through the governor’s office.

The most, $9.5 million, is earmarked in the proposal to a Virginia-based internet firm, Zitel. Amazon Project Kuiper is listed as receiving $184,650, nearly $600,000 for Comcast and more than $614,000 for Orange-based Fiberlync, according to DHCD.

According to Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program is Virginia’s opportunity to finish the job on extending broadband access and also make long-term, transformational investments into broadband affordability and adoption.

With the $1.48 billion in BEAD funds for Virginia, DHCD is finalizing plans to extend broadband infrastructure to the remaining unserved locations without a funded solution for connectivity and designing programs to meaningfully address broadband affordability and adoption, the county stated.

While this award brings Culpeper County closer to achieving universal broadband access for all, it does not complete that goal, according to the economic development department. There are still approximately 3,350 unserved locations in Culpeper County that were to be addressed in the FY22 VATI grant proposal that All Points Broadband did not reach.

The county was forced to forfeit that grant money after it forfeited the contract with All Points Broadband, a Virginia internet provider involved with current contracts with various other Virginia locations.

“Culpeper County will continue to analyze how best to reach those remaining locations and how this latest funding announcement will help us achieve the goal of providing high speed internet access to the county,” the local department said in a statement.

The Virginia Office of Broadband has released Virginia’s BEAD Final Proposal for a seven-day public comment window closing at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday. Comments must be emailed to broadband@dhcd.virginia.gov to be considered. See dhcd.virginia.gov/bead

In other news of broadband connectivity in the rural Virginia Piedmont, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative announced last week it had connected 10,000 customers.

“In just one year, REC has doubled the number of members benefitting from access to high-speed internet in their homes and businesses,” according to a release from the Fredericksburg-based utility. “The connections are a testament to the impact of REC’s effort to bring high-speed internet to unserved and underserved communities in its service region.”

The connections are through a partnership with Firefly Fiber Broadband, a wholly owned subsidiary of Central Virginia Electric Cooperative.

REC has worked with contractors to construct 2,650 miles of fiber network across Albemarle, Louisa, Madison, Greene and Goochland counties.

Progress continues, with more than 13,500+ REC members signed up for high-speed broadband internet service to date. Construction efforts by contractors are ongoing, according to the release.

REC Director of Broadband and Fiber Services Mark Ponton said the joint effort brings broadband internet services to areas that otherwise would not have access to high-speed internet.

“Our members have asked for some time how REC can help bring these services to them and by partnering with Firefly we are fulfilling our members’ needs,” he said.

Many other internet service providers use REC poles to bring internet services to other areas of the REC system, Ponton said.

REC has been working on the project over the past four years. REC owns the fiber network and is providing use of its poles and other infrastructure to bring the high-speed broadband internet to its members, according to the release.

REC members interested in connecting to Firefly for broadband service should register at https://www.fireflyva.com/. Once registered, you’ll get a notification of when service is available in your area.

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