Charter says 2021 fiber internet buildout in IW now complete – Smithfield Times

Charter says 2021 fiber internet buildout in IW now complete

Published 5:38 pm Thursday, October 2, 2025

A Charter/Spectrum worker goes about the business of broadband deployment in this 2023 photo provided by Charter Communications. (Submitted | Charter Image from CharterNewsroom Twitter/X)

Charter Communications says the original scope of its regional fiber optic internet buildout is largely complete.

The area’s dominant internet service provider, which sells its service under the Spectrum brand, broke ground in mid-2022 on a $37.3 million expansion of high-speed internet availability to the rural areas of Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the city of Suffolk. 

Mia Bailey, director of state government affairs with Charter, told Isle of Wight County supervisors on Sept. 4 that Charter had as of that date activated 2,660 passings across 309 miles in Isle of Wight with Spectrum service, fulfilling the terms of its 2021 obligation. 

Several years ago, Charter was awarded 1,839 Isle of Wight passings through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, or RDOF, a federal program that allows internet service providers to compete for the right to provide service to specific census blocks. A passing refers to any physical home or business address able to be connected to Charter’s network.

Charter was awarded an additional 1,378 passings through the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative, or VATI, which in 2022 also contributed $22.7 million in state funding toward the project. Charter and the three participating localities are footing the remaining $14.5 million cost.

County Administrator Don Robertson said Isle of Wight’s share was approximately $2.4 million.

Charter officials say there are now 19,374 passings in Isle of Wight, including new and preexisting service areas.

The original buildout in Southampton County has also been completed and only a few locations in Suffolk remain unfinished. Residents of the three localities can see whether the Charter buildout will reach their home or business by plugging an address into the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission’s interactive map, accessible at https://tinyurl.com/32wxnj3u.

Charter’s regional buildout focused on extending fiber only to areas not presently served by cable modem, but “in serving the newer customers they’ve upgraded a lot of the equipment within the system … so that benefits everybody,” Robertson said at the Sept. 4 meeting.

Charter says it’s now working with the state Department of Housing and Community Development and the HRPDC to add 425 fiber locations in Isle of Wight that weren’t part of the original project, and hopes to complete that expansion by June 30 of next year.

Prince George Electric Cooperative subsidiary RURALBAND, which in 2022 achieved universal fiber-to-the home availability in Surry County,  was awarded its own RDOF grant for 22.1 miles equating to 209 passings on Isle of Wight’s side of the Surry border in 2019. RURALBAND was awarded an additional 52 miles, or 224 passings, through the Connect America Fund, an FCC grant to expand broadband to unserved areas, for a total of 443 address points in northern Isle of Wight.

Charter confirmed its 425 additional address points would also be located in northern Isle of Wight, though it’s unclear if or to what extent those addresses overlap with areas initially awarded to RURALBAND. Robertson told the Times earlier this year that the county had “been advised that RURALBAND is not planning to extend broadband further into Isle of Wight County” and that Isle of Wight was “working with charter to develop a plan to continue to address the areas of the county that remain unserved.” 

RURALBAND confirmed to the Times in May it had paused its plans to expand into Isle of Wight. Prince George Electric Cooperative CEO Sarat Yellepeddi and RURALBAND General Manager Justin Harville said that in 2024 RURALBAND partnered with AES, the developer of the 1,750-acre Cavalier solar farm that now spans the Isle of Wight-Surry county line, to extend broadband availability to roughly 50 homes near the site. Only three, or 6%, of the now-served addresses in proximity to Cavalier had taken advantage of the available service after a year. Surry’s 2021 buildout, by comparison, saw a nearly 50% take rate, or roughly 2,000 homes out of just over 4,040 addresses with access. Charter declined to disclose the take rate for customers served by its regional buildout, citing “competitive reasons.”

The cost of a household broadband connection through Charter in Isle of Wight, Southampton and Suffolk, according to Charter’s website, ranges from $30 to $70 per month depending on the speed of the purchased connection.

“There’s a certain percentage that we need to make our financial goals, to make it make sense, and that’s why this federal money and all the assistance we’re receiving from localities like you has been really helpful to make that model work for us,” Bailey told the supervisors on Sept. 4.

RURALBAND officials say they’re currently focused on completing universal fiber buildouts in Sussex and Dinwiddie counties, which are on track to be completed by the end of this year or early 2026. Once the Sussex and Dinwiddie buildouts are completed, RURALBAND said its plan is to pivot to exploring alternatives to get the Isle of Wight expansion back on track.