Broadband Project Update 7/17/2025
Take a look at the map above to see how the project is progressing in your area!
Some key pieces of information of which you should be aware:
- To make sure your address is part of the project, please reach out to Breezeline via the address portal (https://events.breezeline.us/essexcounty-youhaveachoice/original_page)! If internet difficulties impede your ability to fill out the web form, please call the County GIS office at 804-443-3490 and we’ll type in the info you relay to us over the phone!
- If you live down a long driveway/private road, make sure the owner of the road gives Breezeline permission to come down the road!
- If you have non-Miss Utility buried features (sprinklers, electric fences, etc), let Breezeline know so they don’t inadvertently find them!
We should see lots of activations in August! GEV20 had some weird hiccups on the power supply activation, and there was a splicing issue that delayed the July 8th activation, but it should be live soon. GEV 20 is testing light levels to make sure the correct levels of internet are going through the fibers. GEV21 will soon be ready to start that testing as well. By the end of August 2025, Breezeline is projecting that GER05, GER06, GEV13, GEV20, and GEV21 will come online, and that GEV11 and GEV12 will likely have partial activations (only some of the area going live) by the end of August. The other areas initially planned for end of August (the rest of GEV 11 and GEV 12 as well as GER01) are likely delayed to September.
Rappahannock Electric Cooperative is holding off doing some of the pole replacements until after crops come out of the field. Breezeline will attach to those replaced poles in that same window between harvest and planting.
Some houses are not in a project area, but also do not currently have service. Out of the 497 that we identified as not being in a project area, 131 are not in the current VATI project. Breezeline is going through the addresses to establish what the situation is for each. There are some anomalies at the border with Caroline County, where the same house has an address for Essex and an address for Caroline (for the purposes of the grant) that Breezeline is also working to sort out to get an accurate count of houses served.
To build unobstructed underground fiber costs about $75,000 per mile. Breezeline’s BEAD application assumed all underground construction, given the higher than estimated pole make ready costs we’re seeing in the VATI project (attaching to electrical poles is generally less expensive, but the high number of poles needing replacement in the rural broadband expansion throughout the Commonwealth has meant going underground is generally the cheaper option). The BEAD process had to restart, however, because of federal directives.
Rappahannock Electric Cooperative continues to have faster turnaround on pole assessment for if repairs need to be made to attach to them.
Link to previous broadband announcements:
https://www.essexva.gov/community/page/fiber-internet-coming-essex-updated-06102025