Goochland County, Dominion Energy Virginia, Firefly Fiber BroadbandSM, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Central Virginia Electric Cooperative, and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to advance a regional partnership that aims to deliver fiber-optic broadband service to unserved and underserved households and businesses, subject to regulatory approvals.
The project is intended to cover all possible locations in Goochland that do not have access to broadband meeting the minimum qualifying service speeds that the Commonwealth of Virginia has established, which are 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload from a fixed wireless or wired connection. Dominion and REC are both installing fiber to improve system reliability and resiliency. Firefly will then lease the “middle-mile” fiber to provide broadband access.
“This partnership marks a major milestone in the County’s efforts to ensure reliable, high-speed broadband internet services for all Goochland households and businesses” said John L. Lumpkins, Jr., Chair of the Goochland County Board of Supervisors. “Broadband internet is essential for access to education services, new job opportunities, attracting new businesses, and supporting rural agriculture in the County.”
Fostering partnerships with providers to incentivize expansion of service to unserved and underserved areas of the county is a priority of the County’s 10 Steps to Broadband Internet Initiative.
How to Be Sure Your Home or Business is Included:
Your help is needed to define the final unserved area map. Please visit www.fireflyva.com/rise/ from your home computer using your home internet connection and follow the link to complete a short survey providing your address and what internet service options you have.
- If you only have access to satellite or cell phone for internet service, you are considered unserved.
- If you have connections to a fixed wireless service or have DSL or other phone service and your speeds do not reliably meet the 25/3 threshold, you are considered unserved.
If you have fixed wireless or wired internet service, you will be asked to run a speed test once you have completed the survey; satellite or cell phone services will not be required to run the speed test.
It is important that you visit www.fireflyva.com/rise/ and complete the survey from your home computer using your home internet connection.
The regional partnership includes the localities of Albemarle, Appomattox, Buckingham, Cumberland, Fluvanna, Goochland, Greene, Louisa, and Powhatan along with Dominion Energy Virginia, Firefly Fiber BroadbandSM, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Central Virginia Electric Cooperative, and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative. The project is intended to cover all possible locations in these localities that do not have access to broadband meeting the minimum qualifying service speeds that the Commonwealth of Virginia has established which are 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload from a fixed wireless or wired connection.
