When will all of Buckingham County see high speed internet? The RISE Project by Firefly Broadband is slowly but surely making its way across Buckingham County.

This project is an initiative with Firefly partnering with Central Virginia Electric Cooperative (CVEC) to provide internet access to underserved homes and businesses in numerous counties. This is one of many broadband projects taking place across the Commonwealth.

Here in Buckingham, there are currently 4,100 passings, meaning that the fiber project has laid fiber past the home or business whether they have chosen to connect or not. This is mostly on the western side of the county that is serviced by CVEC.

A large part of the eastern side of the county has a different story. This side is serviced by Dominion Energy, meaning that service is coming but by a different and much slower approach. To help bridge this digital gap, Dominion will be building a “middle mile.” This fiber optic cable infrastructure is like a backbone that Dominion will build for Firefly to branch off from. This means this portion of the county can expect a connection around 2025.

“We are very dependent on Dominion’s timeline,” said Melissa Gay, communications manager for Firefly. “They are still in the scoping phase so we hope to have a timeline sometime in the next month or so.”

Along with these two areas, there are smaller patches spread out mostly through the Dominion territory. These patches are part of the ReConnect United States Department of Agriculture Grant. Firefly is currently working on these areas and expects to be completed in late summer or early fall of this year.

“The process will take us a while as we are building across 14 counties,” said Gay. “Many counties aren’t receiving universal coverage like this, but the county is very much underserved and this is absolutely needed.”

How to get Firefly Broadband 

Whether Firefly is finished or coming that way, residents can register now to get connected. According to Gay, those in the areas not served yet should register as soon as they can as it will be easier to go ahead and connect them directly while still in the area. Those who have already had Firefly pass can still register to be connected.

Residents can visit fireflyva. com/partners-buckingham to view the project map outlining the different areas and see updates on their area. Here, residents can also register to get connected.