Virginia’s Spotsylvania County has claimed another historic moment, reports Fredericksburg.com. The site of an important American Civil War engagement, the area known as the Wilderness (aka, Battle of Spotsylvania Court House) is also the first rural community in the state to experience 5G connectivity. Data Stream Broadband, through a partnership with Xtreme LTE, has installed equipment to connect 400 households, with plans to keep expanding outreach.
“We understand the very real need for high-speed broadband in these rural communities,” stated Extreme LTE President David Tews. “And we’re excited to support Data Stream Broadband and Spotsylvania County with Ericsson’s full turnkey broadband solutions.”
“I feel broadband needs to be treated as a utility because there’s so much need for it, especially with this pandemic hitting us,” said Kevin Marshall, Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors Chairman. “It showed us that our kids living in rural districts like mine … they had a hard time being able to do their schoolwork. They couldn’t get work on the internet. We did accommodations as best we could with hotspots, giving the technology to kids, and still ran into issues with that.”
“By no means is it going to fix all of our problems,” Marshall added, “But we’re going to be a lot farther down the road and be able to provide a lot more service to a lot more citizens in the county. That’s huge for us.”
A 300-foot cell tower is the heart of the new 5G network, and its arrival was celebrated by U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who helped drum up interest and funding for the project.
“It’s exactly what these federal investments are supposed to assist in making a reality,” she said. “My hat’s off to supervisors who recognized the opportunity and jumped on it. Now, school kids and business people and community members are going to have the same access – because of this tower and this connectivity – that people in other parts of the region already have.”
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