CenturyLink has recently informed Chester Gap and Huntly area residents whose properties they will need to access that fiber facilities will soon be installed in that portion of Rappahannock County, all thanks to the FCC’s “Connect America Fund” — a $506 million program currently in Phase 2 of expanding broadband and voice services in areas where they are unavailable.  

The FCC has been providing funding to local telephone companies — in this case CenturyLink — to subsidize the cost of building new network infrastructure for the services. The six-year program is underway in 33 states, including portions of Virginia and Rappahannock County.  

“The new fiber optic cable will be used to bring the initial internet service into Rappahannock County,” CenturyLink says in a letter, forwarded to this newspaper by a Huntly couple. “Plans are to continue to expand the internet service in the future as we move into additional locations within the county in support of the Connect America initiative. The new fiber cable will follow the ‘existing’ electric power lines and be attached to ‘existing’ Rappahannock Electric power poles.”  

CenturyLink is already providing compensation to Chester Gap and Huntly residents whose property and easement tracts it is accessing for the placement of the aerial fiber.