Orange County approves amended Lumos broadband deal, keeps most but not all addresses in build

Sept. 16, 2025 — Orange County Commissioners voted Sept. 16 to approve an amendment to the county’s 2022 incentive agreement with broadband provider Lumos (now part of T‑Mobile), reducing the contract’s original build footprint but preserving the majority of the planned fiber connections.

The board approved a revised payment schedule that would pay Lumos $5,200,000 of the county’s $10 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) incentive if Lumos completes three defined build areas, a change county staff say would cover about 92% of the remaining contracted scope. Robert Reynolds, Orange County chief information officer, told commissioners the county originally contracted for service to 6,370 unserved or underserved addresses; to date Lumos has completed service to 5,187 locations.

Why it matters: County officials said the amendment is intended to protect federal ARPA funds while getting service to the largest number of homes possible after the company reported a multi‑million‑dollar budget overrun and said it could not finish the entire original scope.

“Lumos reported that the project was $20,000,000 over budget and could not move forward without additional funding,” Reynolds said during the presentation. Under the amendment, Lumos would receive three milestone payments for three polygon areas the company identified as feasible to finish; the first of the three payments reflects work already completed under the original agreement.

County attorney (at the meeting identified only by role) told commissioners the county’s legal options are limited because the agreement is an incentive/grant arrangement rather than a service contract. “The North Carolina legislature prohibits all local governments from directly contracting for lines to go in the ground,” the county attorney said, adding that the principal remedy in that contract structure is withholding the remaining incentive funds if the vendor does not complete the milestone requirements.

The amendment extends the construction milestone deadline to July 1, 2026 for the three milestone areas and retains a separate deadline of Dec. 31, 2026 for any additional locations the provider identifies during build‑out and that the state and county subsequently verify.

Public comment at length: The meeting drew a long public comment period centered on the Lumos project. Several residents who remain unserved or who live in so‑called “doughnut” gaps told commissioners they feel the amendment would leave some households without recourse.

Joy Mercer, an attorney who said she lives in a property that appears on the original build list, urged the board not to approve the amendment and argued legal and contractual options exist. “T‑Mobile is worth $267,000,000,000. They can afford to do this contract,” she said. Other speakers described years of limited or unreliable DSL, satellite or wireless service and pleaded for the county to ensure the agencies use any leverage available to finish the work.

County staff and Lumos representatives said the polygon selection for the three milestone payments reflects engineering and cabinet placement considerations and the relative density of address points within those polygons; Lumos’ Andrew Stevenson said the work was targeted to areas with higher concentrations of unserved addresses and that the apparent polygon size on a map can be misleading compared with the actual number of premise connection points in each polygon.

Next steps and conditions: The board also approved a separate motion to reconvene the county’s broadband task force to evaluate next steps, seek additional funding opportunities such as state stopgap funds and BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) awards, and to develop contingency options if some addresses remain unserved after the amended milestones are reached.

The amendment passed on a 5‑2 vote. County staff said they will continue to pursue state stopgap funds and other options while the amended schedule is executed. Staff also advised commissioners that if Lumos abandons the project the county could solicit new vendors or consider alternative uses of local funds, but warned state law and grant rules constrain how local dollars may be spent for physical infrastructure.

What the amendment changes (key figures): the county’s ARPA incentive was $10,000,000 total; Lumos previously received $1,000,000 on contract approval and $3,000,000 after an initial milestone, leaving $6,000,000 unspent. The amendment proposes to disburse a total of $5,200,000 for three completion milestones; the final coverage after adjustments would be 5,852 passings in the amended contract rather than the original 6,370, a net reduction that county staff described in part as the result of new address data, non‑serviceable addresses (vacant lots, parking lots) and BEAD‑eligible addresses that fall under other funding sources.

Ending: Commissioners said they will monitor construction, attempt to match the county’s remaining needs to state and federal funding opportunities, and ask the reconvened broadband task force to recommend further actions to reach any households left without service.