LoudounCounty Case Study – Contact Scott Bashore

In early 2005 the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors adopted a policy goal to increase broadband access to county residences. A full time position was established to work with broadband providers to increase broadband access and to make recommendations on how theLoudounCountygovernment could increase broadband access.

Before any recommendations could be made,staff needed to determine the scope of effort and what areas were in need of additional services. To accomplish this they worked with Verizon – provider of DSL – and Adelphia -- the incumbentcable broadband provider -- and local broadband wireless providers to map the address points and service areas of homes that could purchase broadband services. During the mapping exercise, it was discovered that approximately 2,000 homes were in the Adelphia database but did not exist in the LoudounCounty database. For example an address point in the Adelphia database was 123 Main Street. The actual address in the LoudounCounty database – which is used for tax purposes, assessments and tracking 911 and emergency services – was 123 Maine Ave. After this quality control effort it was also discovered that almost 6,000 homes in the Adelphia database were incorrectly designated to have no broadband service availability. Working with Adelphia, these issues were resolved and 8,000 more residents were able to order services via the Adelphia website or by calling their service phone number. This data was also aggregated into the 10 planning areas in LoudounCounty to better understand which areas of the county needed service. Through this exercise it was discovered that in 2005 approximately 69% of residents could order broadband services (DSL/Cable/Wireless) and that the western (rural) area of LoudounCounty was lacking in broadband.

After scoping out the “as-is” situation Loudoun developed a demand model and worked with network consultants to develop financial models to determine the cost effectiveness of the County building its own broadband platform. The following models were developed: (See figure 1 for high level vision and operating plan)

1) Build a fiber optic infrastructure to all homes and businesses in Loudoun. The model showed that the County would have to spend $320 million to build a network, and even with very aggressive sales and marketing the effort would never break even.

2) Spend $25 million to build an open access wireless network so that any wireless broadband provider could sell services off this network. Neither approach was adopted by the Board of Supervisors

Staff then developed the following strategies for Board consideration:

1) Approach the Virginia General Assembly and obtain legislation to allow localities the ability to provide targeted tax cuts for broadband wireless providers and reduce their tax burden.

2) Reduce regulations for wireless providers so that they could bring services to market faster.

3) Make revisions of the County’s Telcom-tower strategic plan to better enable wireless service in the rural parts of Loudoun.

The Board decided not to expend public funds to build a network infrastructure but to pursue strategy # 1 and #2 to enable the free market to move faster. The General Assembly passed and the Governor signed a bill that gives localities the ability to reduce personal property taxes on wireless broadband providers. Also, regulations were reduced and streamlined to enable wireless broadband providers to process regulatory paperwork in one week -- It previously took six months. (See figure 2 for 2005 v 2008 changes)

Survey of Residents

In November of 2005 and then again in November of 2007a 1,000 resident phone survey was conducted to gauge quality of life issues that included two questions about broadband / internet access

QUESTION 1 “Do you have Internet access at your home?”

2005 2007

% who answered “yes” 90% 92%

QUESTION 2 “How do you access the internet at your home?” Given a choice

2005 2007

Dial-up usage 28% 11%

Other 9% 13%

Fiber optic 3% 26%

Cable broadband 35% 30%

DSL 25% 20%

TOTAL Broadband 72% 89%

Comparing 2005 v. 2007

-Homes using dial-up decreased by 60%

-Homes using broadband increased by 23%

-Homes using fiber optic increased by 700%