The Mathews County Broadband Advisory Board met on May 4, discussing the local initiatives it’s involved in. One matter that was briefly discussed and decided was the naming of the two grants that together will enable nearly 600 addresses to have access to broadband service.

Chairman Judy Rowe said that, since each grant would have its own management team, there needed to be an easy way to identify them. It was determined that the grant obtained in conjunction with Atlantic Broadband would be referred to as the wired grant, reflecting the fact that cable will be used to provide service.

This grant was awarded to Mathews County, but will provide broadband to over 1,200 addresses in Mathews, Middlesex, Lancaster and Caroline counties. The other grant was awarded to Gloucester County in conjunction with Open Broadband, an out-of-state fixed wireless internet provider, and it will be referred to as the wireless grant. It will provide access to over 300 addresses in Gloucester, Mathews and Middlesex.

Gloucester Deputy County Administrator Carol Steele, who serves as liaison to the Mathews board, urged the board to be pro-active in bringing residents up to speed as broadband becomes more widely available in the county. Among her suggestions were to survey people in the areas targeted to determine whether they want the service and if they need remedial help to be able to use the internet, and providing a database to county residents of the nearly 600 addresses that will have broadband available once the project is completed.

Steele said that Open Broadband, which will eventually make broadband available to 180 Mathews households, has offered to hold public meetings to give people an opportunity to find out about their services.

Mathews Deputy County Administrator Julie Kaylor said that Atlantic Broadband, the company that received a grant to provide broadband to over 400 Mathews customers, has its own strategy for addressing such matters.

Steele said that the broadband board should also consider whether it wants to apply for another regional grant after the existing grant-funded projects are completed.

“Hopefully within two to three years, both of our counties will be blanketed with ubiquitous broadband,” she said.
Nancy Welch told board members that two recent brainstorming sessions held by the education stakeholder group had yielded a number of ideas. Starting with the premise of “imagine this,” she said, members discussed reaching the entire county with broadband through such creative measures as using school buses outside of school time to take technology to neighborhoods.

Rowe added that the school group had discussed applying for a local grant that would allow teachers to help residents with their broadband issues or would provide students with the opportunity to meet their requirement for completing an internship, performing service, or obtaining work experience by helping people with digital literacy.

Board member Dee Russell questioned consultant Jeff Beekhoo of Broadband Telecom about the recently-installed Smart Poles. She said the one at the Piankatank Ruritan Club had been offline quite a bit. Beekhoo said that Verizon had changed its SIM cards for the poles, and the old ones needed to be switched out with new ones.

The next meeting of the Mathews Broadband Advisory Board will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday. The meetings are held virtually via Zoom. To request connection information, email robquartel.mathews@gmail.com.