A worker installs a hanger onto fiber optic cable as it comes off of a spool in 2021. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) (Ted S. Warren/AP)

NEW KENT — New Kent County has voted to enter into a $16.1 million agreement with Cox Communications to provide a high-speed broadband connection to every home and business in the county.

The board voted unanimously to hire Cox almost two years after it approved an $80,000 agreement with North Carolina-based RiverStreet Networks to develop the engineering design plan for a fiber-optic network covering the whole county. However, the county opted for Cox after rival companies submitted their proposals.

County Administrator Rodney Hathaway recommended the Cox proposal to the board at a meeting on Aug. 8. Board members said Cox submitted a cheaper proposal than RiverStreet that will provide high-speed broadband to homes more quickly.

Hathaway said New Kent County solicited broadband providers to partner with the county to expand fiber optic high-speed broadband to every home and business in the county last November.

“The county received three proposals and after lengthy reviews, meetings, discussions with the firms that submitted the proposals, the county selected two firms to negotiate with,” he said. Hathaway recommended the county use Cox, the provider that already serves homes in New Kent.

“There are currently approximately 3,053 homes in the county with limited to no broadband service that will be connected within 28 months of Cox receiving its permits,” Hathaway said.

He said work on the fiber optic network should begin by the end of September with estimated completion in September 2024 for the unserved homes. The project also entails upgrading infrastructure for existing customers that are currently on the Cox network using coaxial cable.

“Therefore, the entire Cox network in the county will be fiber optic and those existing customers, who we’ve heard from and some have voiced service concerns, will see significant improvements in service with the agreement that is being proposed,” Hathaway said.

The upgrade for Cox customers on existing services is scheduled to begin in July 2023 and is projected to be completed by August 2026,.

Hathaway said it will cost about $12.1 million to expand high-speed broadband to unserved areas and a further $4 million to upgrade existing customers for a total project cost of $16.1 million.

“The funding for this project will not impact the county’s tax rate. We already have the available funding to move forward with this project; $11.9 million will come from revenues already received from Rosie’s and Colonial Downs and $4.2 million will come from federal American Rescue Plan Act funding,” Hathaway said.

Supervisor John Lockwood said the upgrade of existing Cox customers to a fiber network was not in Cox’s original proposal, which was amended after negotiations with the county.

“That was our goal all along for everybody in the county to have the same level of service and that same level of service was fiber to the home,” Lockwood said.

“It also cuts the timeline significantly. We’ll have those 3,000-plus homes connected before the first connection would have been made by the other provider. This moves the timeline ahead by almost two years and gets everybody up to the same level of service … not to mention it saves about $10 million,” Lockwood said.

Board Chairman Thomas Evelyn described the Cox contract as “great news.”

“This has been the number one concern of my constituents and I can promise you this board and myself have been working very hard to make this happen,” he said. “Unfortunately it did not happen as quick as we wanted.”

According to Evelyn, it doesn’t matter where homes are. “As long as they can get an easement to your house you will be able to receive fiber optic to your home,” he said of the Cox proposal.

Evelyn said town hall meetings will be held across the county to give residents future details about the broadband project.

New Kent County had held a special broadband work session with RiverStreet representatives on June 24, 2021.

At that meeting, the county heard that the initial phase of the broadband project would likely take up to three years to complete. RiverStreet envisioned the construction of a fiber-optic ring that would serve as the backbone of the fiber optic system. The county said it would likely take up to take up to six years to connect all residents who are interested in service. New Kent County has a population of about 24,000.

The board heard it could cost up to $50 million for the network to be built out to all county residents, with the county footing a bill of about $25 million. The supervisors aired concerns about the high costs existing Cox customers faced to receive a broadband connection.

“We’ve all heard the stories of ‘my neighbor has it’ but Cox wants $10,000 to come next door,” Lockwood told the June 24 session.

David Macaulay, davidmacaulayva@gmail.com