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Broadband Update:
Broadband has been a top priority of the Board of Supervisors since 2017, when the County’s first application for broadband funding was made to the Tobacco Commission (funded in 2018). Since that time, the County has attempted projects with three Internet Service Providers (ISPs), none of which were successful. Despite these challenges, the Board was determined to expand broadband throughout Dinwiddie County and was committed to finding a solution.
The County submitted an application to the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) for a universal broadband project in July 2021. The initial request for $10,500,000 would expand broadband to all areas of Dinwiddie County labeled as unserved or underserved. After receiving bids from three internet providers and interviewing the top two, the County selected RuralBand as its partner for this project.
The application was challenged by RiverStreet Networks because they had already received federal funding through the Rural Development Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to serve a large portion of the County and, therefore, believed they should be the County’s partner in the VATI project.
Given the County’s previous experience with RiverStreet on an unsuccessful wireless broadband solution, Dinwiddie opted to rescope the project and accept less money from VATI to continue their project with RuralBand. The RuralBand project encountered unanticipated obstacles, which rendered the project unsuccessful.
Dinwiddie worked closely with the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and VATI to develop a plan to expand broadband throughout the County. Through discussions, it became clear that the best way to achieve broadband expansion was to work with BOTH Ruralband and RiverStreet. During this second rescope, the project continued to be driven by the ISPs, RiverStreet being responsible for 92% of the project area and Ruralband being responsible for 8%, with Dinwiddie having no control over the project scope, timeline, or cost. In this scenario, the County would serve as the conduit through which information traveled between the state and ISPs.
During the process of negotiating contracts and agreements for the rescope, DHCD brought all of RiverStreet's 13 other VATI projects under the singular umbrella of the Western Piedmont Planning District Commission (WPPDC) for management and implementation. As such, Dinwiddie was the only locality slated to manage its own VATI project to which RiverStreet was a partner, and was therefore invited to transfer its project under the same WPPDC umbrella. After careful consideration of the amount of staff time that has already been expended on this project and the enormous amount of oversight and management required moving forward by staff with a variety of other critical responsibilities, the Board of Supervisors agreed to transfer the VATI project to the WPPDC. WPPDC employs a designated Broadband Manager and will work directly with RiverStreet Networks and RuralBand as they build out the project in their assigned areas.
It is important to note that Dinwiddie County has not paid any funds to any ISP for broadband. Following the transfer, DHCD will cover the administrative fees required for WPPDC’s management of the project. County funds originally earmarked for broadband will be reallocated to other County projects.
This has been a long and arduous process, but we are confident that RiverStreet and Ruralband, working together, will successfully expand broadband in Dinwiddie County. We are also confident that transferring our VATI award to the Western Piedmont Planning District Commission is in the best interest of our citizens.
The WPPCD will provide Dinwiddie County with an updated timeline and status reports as they are available, which will be shared with the public via the Dinwiddie County website.
Anyone with questions related to the broadband project should contact: