Glo Fiber crews working to finish Rockingham County broadband expansion

GROTTOES, Va. (WHSV) - Glo Fiber continues to work to install fiber optic cables in Rockingham County in an effort to expand broadband access. It’s already completed its work in four of the county’s six towns and is currently working in Elkton and Grottoes.

“It starts with a partnership that we find with the local communities and the town leadership specifically. I think in sitting down with them that each community understood the benefits of this advanced technology,” said Glo Fiber Vice President Chris Kyle. “Using this technology whether it’s with work, working from home, or learning from home was a very important thing for each of the communities and we’re just grateful for the partnership.”

The project to give more people in rural communities high-speed internet access has been in the works for over two years.

“The speeds that we can offer are multi-gigabyte but it goes beyond that. This a technology that brings symmetrical speeds so when you purchase a gigabyte down from Shentel you’re also getting a gigabyte up. That’s very important when you move out of the realm of just downloading Netflix movies or watching YouTube videos but taking your work and pushing it back up the cloud. That’s where the symmetrical aspect of fiber really differentiates,” said Kyle.

Glo Fiber crews have been hard at work in Rockingham County over the last year, installing fiber lines above and below ground.

“The first stage of this project involves us building our fiber lines in the public rights of way, we follow power generally. There’s a lot of interest generated in neighborhoods when they see us doing this work, a lot of residents will come out and engage,” said Kyle.

Once fiber lines are built in the towns Glo Fiber is able to begin connecting individual homes.

“Pulling from the power onto someone’s property involves signing up for service. We will again follow the power route and come onto the side of the house generally where the power is delivered and we actually bring fiber directly into the house,” said Kyle.

Kyle said that a typical install takes less than two hours. He said that all connections in Elkton and Grottoes are expected to be completed early in 2024.

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