KING WILLIAM — King William’s delayed broadband rollout is due to be completed in August, according to the company running the project.
All Points Broadband has faced criticism from the Board of Supervisors over the timing of the project as the company repeatedly missed deadlines. In 2023, Tom Innes, vice president of business development, said the entire network would be completed by late February 2024. On Dec. 11, Innes changed the commitment to between April and June. On Feb. 26, Innes again revised his prediction to the third quarter of 2024.
“We are targeting August for finishing the network,” Innes told the King William Board of Supervisors on June 10. He gave the date of Aug. 5 for completion. “You should be seeing a lot of trucks out there.”
The company is using S&N Communications, a contractor, to install the cables.
All Points is providing high-speed broadband to 2,236 locations in King William County over a 250-mile network. About 60 miles have been completed, according to Innes.
The hold-ups were due to the time-consuming “make-ready” procedures as thousands of poles were adapted for broadband fiber, according to All Points. Innes said 90% of Dominion Energy’s poles are ready. No figure was given for Rappahannock Electric Cooperative poles, although Innes said the REC is “achieving target throughput” at the June 10 meeting.
In March, REC said notices to proceed had only been issued for 45 poles out of about 1,431, comprising about 3%.
Innes said work to get fiber across railroad tracks to the Pamunkey Indian Reservation is ongoing. The work requires getting “flaggers” to safety cross the tracks.
“It’s a small portion of the network but an incredibly important one. We have all our permits to cross the railroad which took a long time,” Innes said.
Homeowners will have a year after the broadband installation to receive a package of benefits offered by the company, Innes said. Standard installation will cost $199.
Innes also spoke about BEAD, the federal Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment program which could help any locations left out of the project.
Supervisor Ben Edwards raised concerns from the power companies that the delays were caused by All Points not paying them.
“I think there’s maybe 40 poles that we have not paid the invoices for out of 4,000,” Innes said.
All Points has faced criticism over delays in some other parts of Virginia including in Rappahannock and Loudoun counties.
Breezeline, another broadband provider, is responsible for making fiber available to 1,500 homes and businesses in central King William County.
It has started to connect homes in a project expected to be completed in the summer of 2025.
David Macaulay, [email protected]
