Connections are being made everyday in Madison County as the Firefly RISE project continues to progress.
At last month’s board of supervisors meeting, Firefly CEO Gary Wood updated those in attendance on the project’s status. The RISE project is a partnership between Firefly Fiber Broadband, Rappahannock Electric Cooperative (REC) and Dominion Energy and aims to bring affordable, high-speed internet to more than 42,000 homes and businesses over 13 counties including Madison County. The two-phase project is funded via VATI 2022 and 2024 grants, with local and private sector matching funds. A portion not originally included in the project was initially covered via an FCC grant awarded to Brightspeed. The area has since been added to the RISE project along with the matching funding, although Wood said that contract hasn’t yet officially been signed.
Approximately 480 locations are already connected and in-service in Madison County. When finished, there will be approximately 5,000 locations served in the county. Currently, Wood said, splicing and connections are being made in the Pratts areas of the project including Zeus, Wolftown, Madison and Rochelle. Fiber construction is ongoing in the Decapolis areas which include Novum, Quaker Run, Locust Dale, Leon,and Fordsville. Make ready work, which is done by REC and consists of preparing and in some cases, installing, poles to hold the fiber is ongoing in the northern end of the county, which was included in the second phase of the project. That phase is funded by the VATI 2024 grant and was able to be included in the project due to a change in how underserved areas are defined. Originally, an underserved area was one that didn’t have download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second and upload speeds of at least 3 megabits per second. Now, underserved areas are defined as those that don’t have 100 megabits per second download speeds. Wood said it’s basically anyone who doesn’t have cable internet. Firefly offers 100mbps speeds for both downloads and uploads with an option to purchase up to 1 gigabit.
The project is moving along quickly with approximately 200 to 250 connections per week across the entire service area, Wood said, stating REC is one reason for the success.
“Rappahannock Electric has done a really terrific job partnering with us on this project,” Wood said. “They’re doing a superb job coordinating with us.”
The RISE project is scheduled to be completed in 2026. Madison County residents are encouraged to check the availability of the service in their area and pre-register online at https://www.fireflyva.com/partners-madison/.
