Updated at 11:14 a.m. Aug. 8, 2025 with BEAD fact sheet and interactive map.
As recently as November 2024, Carroll County was Virginia’s least internet-connected locality, and residents were frustrated.
If Virginia’s latest recommendations for federal broadband funding go through, the internet will reach most everyone there — and elsewhere in the commonwealth, officials said this week.
The state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, which administers broadband deployment, on Monday published its Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment awards program recommendations. The document proposes $613 million in federal funding, which upon the Department of Commerce’s approval would connect the final 133,500 Virginia residences, businesses and community buildings that high-speed internet has not yet reached, according to a news release from Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office.
It’s welcome news in Carroll County, where a 2022 survey showed that 75% of respondents were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their internet speeds, and 89% reported problems accessing common internet services.
“We have had a difficult time getting to this point, but pretty much all the locations will have fiber to the homes, which is the best option that you can get for high-speed internet,” Carroll County Administrator Mike Watson said in a Thursday phone call. “So we’re hoping within the next two years, all Carroll County will have access and the availability for high-speed internet.”
That goes for the rest of the state’s unserved and underserved — and mostly rural — areas, all while saving taxpayers $200 million, Youngkin said in the news release.
The federal program known as BEAD followed the Biden administration’s pandemic-era American Recovery Plan Act in providing money for nationwide broadband deployment.
A public comment period opened late Monday afternoon and expires at midnight Aug. 13. The housing department will accept only comments emailed to broadband@dhcd.virginia.gov. The state will submit its final proposal to the Commerce Department after that. The housing department on Friday updated its website with a BEAD fact sheet and interactive map.
Youngkin’s office said that the Trump administration’s recently revised BEAD application rules eliminated “red tape” that allowed for a 25% savings from DHCD’s previous cost estimate of $815 million.
State officials made that estimate before the Commerce Department published a notice that eliminated requirements for affordability options; sections related to labor practices; and contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses, among other measures.
Non-deployment funding, which in Virginia featured getting cellular service to all points in the commonwealth, was also suspended indefinitely.
All applications were rescinded under the notice, effectively restarting the process nationwide.
The Commerce Department’s rule changes included a move toward “technology neutrality,” which put low-earth orbit satellite providers such as Elon Musk-owned Starlink and Amazon-owned Kuiper Commercial Services on equal footing with fiber-optic cable providers. Musk, a onetime confidante to President Donald Trump, was in charge of the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency during the early months of 2025.
Starlink, a subsidiary of Musk’s SpaceX, had not submitted any applications for BEAD funding during the Biden administration, but after the changes in early June, SpaceX became involved in the process. The DHCD recommended that Starlink serve 5,579 locations through a $3.3 million award. That figure includes 3,137 locations in Southwest and Southside Virginia, with an award of $1.6 million.
Virginia recommended that Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite system receive $4.5 million to reach 6,957 locations. Unlike Starlink, the nascent Kuiper had previously applied for funding before the rule changes, but DHCD had not made its final recommendation before Commerce rescinded applications. The state recommended Kuiper receive about $970,000 to reach 1,132 locations in Southwest and Southside Virginia.
Success for low-earth orbit satellites was limited by two measures. It’s widely understood that in areas with high concentrations of homes, businesses and community centers, download and upload speeds will slow when multiple users are attempting to access the internet.
“Not noticeable most of the time, but if you have a lot of users on at the same time, speeds are going to start to slow,” James Dunstan, a tech-focused, Northern Virginia lawyer whose bailiwick includes telecommunications and outer space, said in an email exchange.
The presence of tree canopies is a factor, as well.
“Broadband technologies with obstructed line-of-sight, specifically wireless and LEO technologies, can have signal degradation, increased latency [the time it takes for information to travel from a browser to a server and back], and reduced reliability,” according to the DHCD Office of Broadband’s final proposal to Commerce, released on Monday.
Both impact a provider’s ability to provide the federal standard of 100 megabits per second download and 20 megabits per second upload speeds. The state broadband office figured for both of those measures when making its recommendations.
Statewide, fiber-optic providers received the vast majority of funding recommendations.
All Points Broadband, at $171.3 million for 19,801 connections, and Comcast, with $146.4 million for 24,343 locations, led the way among about two dozen applicants statewide.
All Points’ only Southwest and Southside work would be in Pulaski County, where the state recommends it receive $1.1 million to connect 201 locations. Comcast, however, could be using BEAD money to construct fiber lines throughout this part of the state, including a potential 2,080 Montgomery County connections, 930 in Lynchburg and 405 in both Powhatan and Cumberland counties.
In Carroll County, ZiTel would send line to 5,141 connections, while 154 would come from Citizens Telephone, and Kuiper would serve 15.
Watson, the county administrator, said he was grateful to the DHCD and the providers for the help they’ve given the county and the recommendations to connect its citizens.
Other counties with large numbers of connections coming are Grayson (3,830), Halifax (4,650) and Pittsylvania (3,684).
Franklin County is in line for 2,628 connections. ZiTel would provide 2,274 of them, with 121 more fiber-optic locations on tap via other companies. The broadband office recommended SpaceX service 217 locations with free Starlink dishes, with six proposed for Kuiper.
“I’m not surprised that we see a few SpaceX awards,” said Steve Sandy, Franklin County deputy county administrator and broadband manager. “Our preference is always going to be getting the fiber to somebody’s house, so luckily for us it’s a small piece that is satellite.”
Sandy, whom Youngkin recently appointed to the state’s Broadband Advisory Council, also credited the broadband office for two years of hard work getting to this point. The Commerce Department rule changes gave the office less than two months to redo the application process.
He said he hoped that non-deployment funding can be saved, as universal cellular service is a crucial need, particularly in emergencies.
In Bedford County, 2,855 locations could get service, with ZiTel handling 2,773 connections, SpaceX 70 and Kuiper 11 (RiverStreet Networks would have one). Supervisor Edgar Tuck said the maps haven’t been published, but his understanding is that satellites will cover the Goode and Cifax areas, where fiber deployment is difficult.
Tuck represents a district that includes the Moneta, Huddleston, Body Camp and Lynch Station communities.
Work is proceeding mostly on schedule for the American Rescue Plan Act-funded projects, said Tuck, who recently completed a term as the board of supervisors chairman. He said that he has been dealing with broadband deployment in the county since he first joined the board.
“When I was first elected, which has been almost eight years ago, this was one of the top priorities, at least for my area,” Tuck said. “It has taken a while, but it’s good to see the end of it coming.”
