MuniWireless

Fauquier County. Virginia has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the creation of a county-wide broadband network. Note: the network can be wired, wireless or both. Fauquier County (pop. 63,000, largely rural) is in the north central Piedmont region of Virginia, 40 miles southwest of Washington DC. It covers 660 square miles (1710 square kilometers). Although the county is not funding the network, it is not requiring the provider to offer free access.

A non-mandatory pre-proposal conference will be held on Tuesday, August 26, 2008 in the 2nd floor large conference room of the Alice Jane Childs Office Building, 320 Hospital Drive, Warrenton, VA. A copy of the RFP may be downloaded from the Fauquier County website (RFP# 08-09sm). Sealed proposals are due in the Procurement Division no later than 2:00 p.m. September 17, 2008.

Rural county broadband deployments can be quite successful especially where there are workers, businesses or holiday makers who desperately want broadband access, but find only dial-up. Racine County, Wisconsin recently deployed a wireless broadband network specifically targeted at areas where there was hardly any broadband service. Other examples of rural broadband projects are described in the articles listed below:

Craven County, North Carolina goes wireless: rural Wi-Fi connects schools, towns

Cambria County, Pennsylvania launches countywide wireless network