Virginia's Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority has completed the buildout of 47 miles of fiber serving parts of Salem, Roanoke and Botetourt counties. Set to be turned on before May, the Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority will provide alternative gigabit speed services to area schools, government agencies and businesses.
The 47-mile network is just one part of a larger network build initiative. A proposal from Roanoke County calls for spending $3.4 million to build another 25 miles of fiber to extend broadband services to even more area customers. However, the county's plan needs to get approval from its board of supervisors. Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority has already approved the rates for larger customers, but ultimately the network will be open to service providers that could use the fiber to provide services to their customers.
Over the network, the authority will deliver a mix of dark and lit fiber services. It will offer transport and dedicated Internet service plans to enterprises with monthly rates ranging from $550 for 10 Mbps of bandwidth to $5,687 for 1 Gbps services. Additionally, customers will have the option of leasing dark fiber with prices ranging from $21 to $100 a month. The dark fiber rates depend on whether the customer is a commercial carrier or nonprofit, how long they plan to lease the fiber and how much of the nearly 50-mile network they want to use. The Roanoke Times article