State VATI Broadband Grant

Hanover County Submits 2021-2022 Virginia Telecommunications Initiative Broadband Grant Application

On July 28, Hanover County announced the “Connect Hanover” initiative to make broadband services available to residents living in unserved areas of the county.

County Administrator John A. Budesky announced that after a competitive process, Hanover has selected All Points Broadband to identify those areas of the county that lack access to a broadband connection of at least 25 Mbps/3 Mbps. All Points Broadband will assist the County in developing and implementing a strategy to deliver broadband access with minimum speeds of 100 Mbps/100 Mbps to all remaining unserved areas.

All Points Broadband is partnering with Dominion Energy Virginia and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC), who will provide “middle-mile” fiber capacity to All Points and leverage the initiative to improve the operation and efficiency of their electric grids. As it moves forward with efforts to modernize Virginia’s energy grid, Dominion Energy is working to provide “middle-mile” fiber optic cable infrastructure that can also be used to bridge the digital gap and reduce broadband deployment costs in Hanover County. All Points will serve as the partnership’s last-mile internet service provider and be responsible for providing service to end users.

Highlights of the grant application include:

• 6198 homes and businesses to be served, including 785 businesses and home-based businesses and 43 community and government buildings;
• $13,970,000 in VATI grant funds requested;
• $14,840,000 in County American Rescue Plan Act funds;
• $26,629,000 in private investment;
• $55,439,000 total project cost.