Loudoun Approves Contract To Expand Broadband To Rural Areas

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors approved a $15.5 million contract that it hopes will form the backbone of an expanded fiber network for broadband internet access in the more rural areas of the county. Along with connecting county-government facilities in the western part of the country with new in-ground broadband fiber, the contract with Lumos Networks Inc. calls for the company to install additional fiber lines that will benefit residents in western Loudoun who currently have poor broadband service or no service at all.

The Loudoun County government would use the county school system's existing contract with Lumos Networks as a way to add additional fiber optic cable to improve access to government-owned buildings in rural areas of the county. Under the contract, Lumos Networks will replace the county's aging fiber infrastructure, which is nearing the end of its life expectancy, according to the county.

In awarding the contract to Lumos Networks in a 8-0 vote on Dec. 3, the county's Board of Supervisors said they believe the extra fiber will make it easier for private internet service providers to offer affordable broadband service to western Loudoun residents. It is also expected to bring down the county government's broadband costs over the long term.

"We are going to invest heavily in expanding broadband throughout our rural areas," Supervisor Tony Buffington said at the meeting where the board approved the contract. "It piggybacks on a school project to connect their buildings throughout western Loudoun. And we're going to go ahead and connect our buildings and government-owned facilities throughout western Loudoun."

The contract with Lumos Networks will provide a "much-needed middle-mile network throughout western Loudoun," said Buffington, whose Blue Ridge District covers the majority of western Loudoun.

The excess fiber that will be laid can be made available to private companies. "And that's how we can get the last mile to a lot of people who currently are either underserved or unserved at all," he added.

Five county facilities are not included in the contract: the Bluemont Community Center, the Philomont Community Center, Philomont Fire & Rescue, Loudoun Heights Fire & Rescue, and the Loudoun Heights Public Safety Radio Tower. Connecting to those is expected to cost $4.8 million, a project that the supervisors will consider as they write the next fiscal year's budget.

Even though actual services to Loudoun County government facilities will not begin until Jan. 1, 2021, the contract needed to be awarded effective Dec. 1, 2019 in order for Lumos Networks to coordinate the buildout with its ongoing construction of a fiber system to Loudoun County schools in western Loudoun.

The county's contract with Lumos Networks, an affiliate of Segra, is called a Dark Fiber Wide Area Network Services contract. Dark fiber refers to the procedure of leasing out fiber optic cables from a network provider or service provider. When fiber cables are installed, many companies overestimate the total amount of supplies and cables needed in order to perform the job. The reason behind this overestimation is to ensure that the company can prevent their dark fiber network from gaining an overgrowth of data.

Lumos Networks said it is including additional capacity in its Loudoun public schools fiber routes.

The company "commits to offer to all other potential customers in Loudoun, whether communications provider or not, services on fair, reasonable, consistent, and competitively-neutral terms and prices, which will incorporate a portion of the savings attributable to the avoidance of incremental build costs due to the build costs funded by LCPS and Loudoun County as appropriate," Steven Hamula, associate general counsel of Lumos Networks and Segra, said in a statement attached to the contract proposal approved by the board.