AllPoints broadband says first Rappahannock cabinet to be active in mid‑February; 263 addresses in initial marketing phase

An AllPoints Broadband representative gave a detailed progress update on the county’s ARPA and BEAD‑funded regional fiber rollout during the Jan. 5 Board of Supervisors meeting.

Tom Ennis (AllPoints) said construction is underway in most counties and that the network design shifted from predominantly aerial to predominantly underground. In Rappahannock, AllPoints started marketing to 263 locations in an area the company calls “Rappahannock 2.5”; about 4.5% of those households have started account creation. Ennis said the Wrap‑2 cabinet (the network aggregation cabinet for that sector) is built and expected to be powered and active in mid‑February; once active the initial group of customers could begin installations and service activations.

Ennis clarified the project’s programmatic structure: approximately 110 miles of underground fiber remain to be completed under the ARPA‑funded portion, with an additional roughly 60 miles moved into the federal BEAD program; BEAD‑scoped miles will be completed on a later timetable (AllPoints expects BEAD work to finish about a year after the ARPA deadline). He said the different funding sources require distinct procurement and reporting processes, so construction timelines can differ across those segments.

On customer enrollment and pricing, AllPoints described its website apbfiber.com as the primary signup portal, explained a referral credit ($150 to referrer and $150 to referred customer after a completed installation), and said early signups within 12 months of service availability qualify for a $99 installation fee; after a longer delay installation costs can increase (examples provided in the presentation discussed per‑foot charges in lengthy service drops).

Ennis also walked supervisors through the private‑road easement process: when a private road has a subset of homes signing up, AllPoints will pursue recorded easements along the preferred route (providing notary options and outreach for owners), and generally proceeds when an installation threshold is reached (the company cited a 30% neighborhood threshold as a typical trigger for easement collection and outside‑plant construction). He said AllPoints will work with Rappahannock Electric Cooperative on pole attachments where possible and coordinate VDOT permits for work in rights‑of‑way.

Supervisors asked about household counts served by the Wrap‑2 cabinet; Ennis said the initial 263 could be installed immediately after activation and the full Wrap‑2 cabinet will ultimately serve about 902 locations across five subsections. Board members also raised questions about the pace of construction, how miles were moved between ARPA and BEAD scopes, and how customers who already use satellite services (for example, Starlink) should weigh switching to fiber. Ennis responded that fiber provides higher long‑term capacity and that some plans (e.g., multi‑gig) will not be feasible over satellite.

What’s next: AllPoints will continue daily street‑sheet updates for construction crews and follow up with county staff about private‑road easement messaging and district‑level mapping of construction plans. The company suggested a potential public event near the Wrap‑2 cabinet when service is activated.