Albemarle broadband authority hears audit finding up to 74 potentially unserved locations; pauses reimbursements

The Albemarle County Broadband Authority on an abbreviated meeting reported the results of an audit of BrightSpeed’s build work and discussion of progress on the Firefly project, including construction, easements and funding rounds.

Authority staff reported that an audit requested from BrightSpeed covering roughly 1,430 agreed locations found as many as 74 addresses that may not have been served as intended. "We did pause, close out and reimbursement activities," the staff member said, describing the authority's immediate response while the discrepancy is investigated.

The authority’s summary said some of the 74 addresses appear to be data or address-formatting mismatches that will be resolved by system updates. The staff member added that a subset of locations will require confirmation of network capacity or additional engineering work before they can be served. Staff said BrightSpeed will provide an update with local engineering staff next week to…