An agreement between Gloucester County and Open Broadband, LLC, that would have the North Carolina-based company place equipment on existing county-owned towers to provide broadband service to 113 households was approved unanimously following a public hearing Tuesday.

The small number of homes in the agreement is due to the funding source for the project. Gloucester was awarded the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative Grant to fund broadband projects in the county.

The VATI grant does not allow Open Broadband, LLC, to overlap its signal with existing Cox Communications territory.

Open Broadband serves 15 different rural counties in North Carolina; Gloucester will be its first venture in Virginia. Open Broadband CEO Allen Fitzpatrick said that the company doesn’t intend to make a large profit in Gloucester because of its size. He said if Gloucester was a more profitable market, Cox would have already installed infrastructure throughout the county.

In the agreement, Open B...