Dominion Energy’s ability to offer middle-mile services came as a part of 2019 legislation enabling investor-owned utilities in the state to lease excess fiber capacity to ISPs, resulting in a win-win for the company, the state, and the citizens of rural communities which didn’t have an affordable way to get high-speed broadband.

“The unserved areas across Virginia, and really across United States, look a lot like Swiss cheese,” said Ed Diggs, Rural Broadband Manager, Dominion Energy. “You have pockets of served in unserved areas, the point being it was too costly for any one provider to come in and close those larger unserved areas by themselves. The thought was, ‘Why not leverage utility companies which already have the power lines and rights of way in place?’ We could come in, build our fiber for our utility network, and then lease out some of that excess fiber to willing ISP companies.”

Under the 2019 legislation, Dominion Energy conducted pilot programs in Surry County and the Northern Neck of Virginia and is now transitioning to wider operations across the state, with involvement continuing to grow as other localities heard about the program and wanted to secure their own middle-mile access.

“We’ve got close to 30 different counties and jurisdictions involved,” said Diggs. “By having a middle-mile partner with Dominion, they can focus on being last mile providers. We’re forecasting to build close to 3,000 miles as part of the Virginia broadband initiative, using a portion of that fiber to communicate along our electric distribution infrastructure with our major devices. More importantly it’s allowing our ISP partners to close the gap and serve the unserved areas in Virginia where otherwise the economics didn’t make sense and they couldn’t afford to do it by themselves.”

Dominion Energy started its middle-mile efforts with a single person (Diggs) in 2019. It now has 30 internal employees dedicated to its middle-mile effort, working with hundreds of vendors to research, design, and build out its network at a rate that Diggs described as “very fast, a very compressed timeline.” 

Given Dominion’s status as a regulated utility operating in the state of Virginia, each fiber build must be approved by the State Corporation Commission. The first petition to build 500 miles of fiber took place in 2022 with this year’s petition adding almost 1,900 miles. A few more counties are expected to file petitions in 2024 to continue to increase the size of the network. 

Internet service providers are leasing the dark fiber from Dominion and provide the electronics necessary to connect and light it, with the leasing costs being used to offset the construction build and other overhead costs to maintain and repair it. Most of the fiber is aerial deployed and is being installed in such a way to minimize any make ready costs. 

Any excess capacity not used by the ISP or Dominion could be available for other parties. “There’s no provision to say we can’t lease any excess fiber to other broadband providers, whether they’re cellular providers or another ISP company on the back end once we’ve met the unserved obligations with our ISP partner,” said Diggs.

Last month, Georgia’s Public Service Commission approved a policy for broadband expansion to unserved areas that requires electric membership cooperatives to charge a simple $1-per-year fee for entities to attach to utility service poles for a 6-year period. Commissioner Tim Echols recently joined the Fiber Broadband Association for Fiber for Breakfast, a live, weekly video series, to discuss the new policy and why connectivity is becoming more important than ever—and how fiber is paramount to this mission.

“A lot of folks here in Georgia, they don’t have internet at all,” he said. “They’re going to McDonalds to get their kid’s homework done. Fiber is a fantastic product and if you can get it deployed from the get-go, you can solve that problem for a very long time.”

The commission is tasked with setting utility rates, among other things, and began looking at this issue a few years back. Fee rates had been a point of contention between telecom companies and electric membership cooperatives for years. When they were looking at expanding areas of broadband coverage, they thought a great solution would be to remove some of the barriers to access and get providers to run networks on the poles.

The $1 fee would be set for six years. For those operating in areas currently served by broadband would be $27.71 per pole per year. According to the commission, this is an “at cost” fee that covers service and upkeep of the poles.

Echols said when the commission was considering which formula to use, they looked at what made most sense to Georgians and the electric membership cooperatives. They also wanted to make a rate that would adequately encourage network providers to expand in rural parts of the state.

“All of our formulas reflect what we thought was fairness and something that was commercially reasonable,” he said. “We wanted to make this work for everyone.”

While it’s too soon to tell whether this method will work, Echols said the commission is planning on documenting how many network providers break into rural areas using the $1 rate. In 2022, they hope to have a full report on whether there was an impact. He said they’re also using this as a chance to talk to other people—especially those making policy decisions—on ways to improve internet access.

He said many laypeople don’t understand the mechanics of how networks are built. Having groups like the Fiber Broadband Association and its members help educate members of the public—and those in government—who recognize the importance of connectivity but need guidance on how to act on it. He added that because many people don’t know the difference between the types of internet, educating them about the benefits of fiber is key.

“This is a problem you work on every day,” he said. “But there are many people in Georgia that don’t have a decent option for internet, and they’re thinking ‘How can we do this and how long is it going to take?’ You have to help people understand—the average consumer, the policy makers—you have to have them thinking about it. They have to say, ‘We have to do whatever we need to do to get everyone connected as fast as possible.’”

“Connectivity is the electricity of the 21st Century,” Echols said.

New initiatives like the $1 pole attachments show that policy change in small ways can hopefully have a major impact.

“Connectivity is the electricity of the 21st Century,” Echols said.

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At a recent Fiber for Breakfast live video series, John Greene, CEO of New Lisbon Telephone Company (NTLC), spoke about what fiber in the rural Heartland looks like, and why fiber is becoming essential in delivering service. While many rural areas have increasingly relied on fixed wireless solutions—including NLTC—the topology and geographic characteristics of Midwestern and Heartland cities make them better candidates for fiber networks.

“In a lab or in a pristine environment, it’s absolutely possible and has been proven that you can provide gigabit service over fixed wireless,” Greene said. “The issue has to do with range and line of sight. If you’re in the desert or you have large open expanses, you have line-of-sight and can see your customers and their houses, you won’t have to worry. It’s when you move further east of the Mississippi where you have a large preponderance of trees—that’s when it’s going to be very challenging.”

Established in 1901 as a rural telephone provider, NLTC provides voice, video, fixed Ethernet and broadband internet. Currently they serve more than 3,000 customers over five counties in Indiana, and recently acquired a small phone company in Pennsylvania. For the past several years, NLTC rehabbed it’s old copper DSL network with fiber.

Right now, NLTC has converted nearly 95% of its network. While two thirds of its customers are on fixed wireless connections today —Greene said the shift to fiber, and specifically fiber-to-the-home, is the way of the future. Fixed wireless models have high maintenance costs and often require a lot of small cells. While that may work in some urban areas, in rural communities where homes are spread far apart, small cells aren’t ideal.

While fiber networks can be expensive to initially install, they often offer better overall service and longevity.

“We’ve literally got customers that we hooked up with fiber six years ago that we’ve never heard from—everything works and it works perfectly,” he said. “You’re not constantly visiting your customer’s house because they’re having a problem.”

These networks are also futureproof. Greene said rural communities investing in fixed wireless now might not have the technology to increase capacity. Recently, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction announced its major winners, including fixed wireless companies building out gigabit networks. Greene said in the near future, though, we’ll be looking at networks that can handle upwards of 10 gigabits—something current wireless technology can’t handle.

“At the end of the day, that’s what we need to be thinking about,” he said. “What are consumers going to get out of this? How are we going to make high frequency gigabit wireless networks work in these areas?”

While he recognizes hybrid models are successful now—which his company is proving—in order to ensure strong connectivity and reliability, there need to be more conversations about what that technology looks like. He said rural network providers need to start moving toward fiber-based backbones to ensure that as capacity needs grow, their networks will be able to handle it.

“Are we always going to be playing catch up, or do we need to figure out a way to get in fiber?” he said. “Because in four to five years we’re not going to be dealing with gigabit speeds, we’re going to need to offer 10 gigabits for each customer, and fiber is the way to do that.”

Join us for our next Fiber for Breakfast live video series on Wednesday, Dec. 16 at 10 am ET. The topic: Fiber Data Delivery in the Mid-West.

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