Co-ops in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware band together to increase the rollout of high-speed internet to rural areas

Electricity was slow in coming to rural areas because investor-owned utilities felt connecting widely dispersed people in sometimes tough terrain would be unprofitable. Rural electric cooperatives filled the gap, and now a group of co-ops has formed a multi-state broadband co-op to bring greater internet access to rural areas in the mid-Atlantic, Chris Teale reports for Route Fifty. 

The Virginia Maryland and Deleware Association of Broadband Cooperatives says it has connected 30,000 rural Virginia residents since 2017 and is planning to add 200,000 over the next three to five years. "Broadband uses most of the same infrastructure the co-ops do to provide electricity, including public rights of way," Teale writes. "This next phase of fiber deployment across Virginia could be challenging, however, due to the topography of the communities and low population density."

Gary Wood, the CEO of Firefly Broadband, a subsidiary of the Central Virginia Electric Cooperative, said his service area includes parts of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which sometimes forces installers to dig into rock or cross marshland to lay fiber cables. Internet can also be expensive in the area since it averages only eight customers per mile, but the larger co-op could reduce consumer costs by larger purchases of equipment. 

Co-ops across the nation have had success in expanding rural broadband. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association says that about 200 co-ops "are providing or building out broadband, while another 200 are assessing the feasibility of providing service," Teale reports. Over 6 million homes in co-op service areas still lack access to high-speed internet.