Thread by @cvillenewscom

Albemarle County is asking broadband vendors for proposals to provide services to 20 unserved and underserved areas of Albemarle County. They’re offering up to $800,000 in payments to subsidize ISPs’ network expansions. m.vendor.epro.cgipdc.com/Vendor/public/…

This RFP was published by the Albemarle Broadband Authority, of which I’m a member, and I want to say a few words about how impressive this is.

The county is prepared to *pay* ISPs to provide service to people without it. God bless the Board of Supervisors for funding this.

What happens when you offer $800,000 to ISPs to expand their networks to 20 areas of a county? 🤷‍♂️ We have no idea! We’ve kept the RFP open-ended, and we’re gonna see what kind of ideas vendors have in exchange for some chunk of that money.

Oh, and those 20 eligible areas? Those were identified by the many folks who responded to the county’s broadband survey. That allowed us to identify where people had no broadband, or slow broadband (less than 10 Mbps).

If you completed that: thanks!

If you’re looking at the map and thinking “what about southern Albemarle?” then I have good news for you. CenturyLink and CVEC are expanding their networks in southern Albemarle substantially, and y’all are gonna be covered.

Anyway, we’ll see who responds to this request for information (RFI), and then who responds to it when it’s formalized as a request for proposals (RFP). 🤞

The availability of broadband, in our mini-era of Covid-19, has made *perfectly* clear who the haves and have-notes are in Albemarle County. Those of us with broadband can often keep working. Our kids can be educated. We’re getting by.

Those without broadband? They’re sunk.

Broadband is not a luxury. It is not a nice-to-have. It is a basic utility, more important than a phone line. Everybody in Albemarle should have access to affordable, reliable, fast broadband.

I hope this new Albemarle Broadband Authority initiative helps with that.