Broadband access to provide internet service to 20,000 new people in Franklin County
FRANKLIN COUNTY, Va. (WSET) -- A contract was signed in Franklin County on Tuesday to help county residents get faster internet connections.
The new wireless system is expected to provide service to about 20,000 people across Franklin County.
To make this happen, the county is building eight new towers, as well as adding onto four existing towers.
Franklin County is now partnered with Blue Ridge Towers and Biscnet to help build and operate the wireless system.
Shentel, another wireless provider, will assist in the project by extending fiber optic cable along Old Salem School Road in Union Hall. This will help to bring broadband access to about 200 homes and businesses.
For businesses in Franklin County like Magnum Point Marina and Restaurant, this new system will change everything.
"When people come to visit on road trips or anything and they bring their computers, it's really slow and they can't use the internet," Emily Ann Jones, an employee at Magnum Point, said. "Or when we're trying to order things. It would just benefit a lot of things, not just the business."
Jones said that customers ask for their internet information all the time.
"I can't give them the internet because one, we don't have a fast enough internet processor for them to use and two if they were to get on it, it wouldn't work for anybody and would just shut down everything."
Jones said that they are excited to have internet that works.
"It is just pretty laggy around here," Jones said.
The Franklin County Director of Planning and Community Development, Steven Sandy, said that the $4.6 million project will speed up local internet significantly.
A $2.38 million grant awarded to the county in January through the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative helped to fund the project, along with investments by the companies involved.
"The fixed wireless is generally going to be 25 to 100 meg speed, but for a lot of citizens in our county, that's a significant improvement," Sandy said. "If they're even able to have internet, many of them have internet that is less than 5 megabits per second."
The project to bring fixed wireless to about 20,000 residents will start construction in August and plans to be wrapped up in late 2021.
