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State, vendor say Franklin County broadband work progressing as BEAD moves to contracts
Summary
State and Zitel project managers told the Franklin County Broadband Authority that BEAD planning is nearing contracting and that Zitel’s build is roughly half complete in miles and passings, with schedules contingent on federal environmental reviews and final BEAD contracts.
Carl Codell, project manager with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development’s Office of Broadband, told Franklin County officials on June 16 that BEAD (the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program) is advancing from planning to execution and that the state has posted a public BEAD progress hub to show passings and provider service status in near real time. "The BEAD is to kind of build on what we have accomplished...and fill in the gaps of the communities and homes that fell between the cracks," Codell said.
Why it matters: The BEAD grants are intended to reach remaining unserved and underserved addresses; local leaders said they want a reliable, public tool so residents can track work and sign up with providers when their address is ready. The county has existing builds under other programs and is coordinating multiple projects and providers.
Zitel, the incumbent provider building much of the Franklin County footprint, gave contractors’ benchmarks and customer counts in a follow‑up presentation. "We are 100% done with engineering, staking, and walkouts for all six PoPs in Franklin County," said Rodney Gray of Zitel, and the company reported roughly 118 miles built of an expected 210-mile project and 925 completed passings out of about 2,325 addresses identified as eligible. Zitel said about 108 customers are already subscribed and there are about 247 leads signed for service in the county footprint.
State and provider caveats: Both county staff and the vendor cautioned that construction timing depends on several external items. Gray said construction crews already on the ground can be re‑tasked when BEAD contracts are signed, but federal reviews remain: "We can't do any construction until the NTIA...gives us our environmental review documents back and our historic preservation documents," he said, noting NTIA has signaled many projects can receive categorical exemptions but that federal timing is not guaranteed.
What’s next: Codell said the state has been working to get BEAD recipients and partners under contract and expects BEAD timelines and map updates to accelerate as passings are completed and data are posted to the public dashboard. Local staff said they would post direct links and outreach materials to help residents check service availability and sign up when their addresses are turned up.
Ending: County leaders thanked the state and Zitel for the on‑the‑ground visits and said they would continue outreach to residents while tracking the federal steps that trigger larger construction phases.
