The government of Virginia Beach in Virginia has recently entered into a partnership with Dish Network to deliver satellite internet to areas that have little or no broadband. Virginia Beach currently boasts a population of over 450,000 residents and is distributed over a large area that comprises rural regions. This new venture seeks to ensure the region’s inhabitants who lack internet access enjoy high-speed connectivity.
Specifically, the issue of connectivity in Rural Virginia Beach where there is no access to the Internet.
As time passes, the usage of the internet and other related services has become more widespread, but many rural areas still have limited choice in the broadband connections they have access to. Telecom giants have been disinclined to invest in infrastructure within left-out regions, where it’s difficult to generate revenues. However, a dependable high-speed internet connection has become a necessity through which Americans can fully engage in education, work, healthcare, and civic participation. The COVID-19 pandemic accentuated this situation as work, classes, and medical consultations moved to virtual environments.
Virginia Beach is much greater than 500 square miles, the majority of the area is rural farmland and small unincorporated areas. Approximately 30,361 households do not have any internet access or access to networks with download speeds of 25 Mbps/ upload speeds of 3 Mbps, which the FCC has set as the minimum broadband service. People living in rural Virginia Beach have to move to other areas where the development in technology is a bit higher and use parking lots with Wi-Fi for connection once they need to go online. This could not be a sustainable long-term measure.
The partnership between Dish Network
In January 2023, the Virginia Beach City Council passed a five-year agreement with Dish Network’s Space Mobile offering satellite broadband over currently unconnected parts of the city. Depending on the region, the installation of service terminals will start in spring 2023.
Space Mobile has business model similarities to existing satellite internet providers like Viasat and HughesNet. However, Dish said Space Mobile will provide faster speeds with lower latency that is closer to cable/ fiber.
The contract ensures that all households in Virginia Beach including earlier excluded rural areas have a choice of satellite internet meeting FCC’s minimum speed of 25/3 Mbps download and upload respectively. Real-world speeds were witnessed to be as high as 50 Mbps down.
Space Mobile is from Dish’s network of cell towers and space satellites covering the entirety of North America. Unlike other geosynchronous satellites from other providers that take position twenty-two thousand five hundred miles above the earth, Dish satellites hover only seven hundred and fifty miles above the earth. This closer proximity means that the interaction between clients and servers is faster with lesser latency and lag times.
The satellite dish equipment and installation for Space Mobile shall be offered at cost for Virginia Beach’s residents who wish to sign a one-year contract. Monthly service fees will also be similar to satellite internet costs, between $60 and $100 based on operating limitations.
Reaction to Deal
The Dish Network contract and the prospect of having high-speed internet access everywhere in Virginia Beach was a topic that the city’s leaders seemed to be eager to discuss. Widening the coverage of broadband has strategic relevance to objectives outlined in Virginia Beach’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan touching on technology infrastructure and digital inclusion within residential tracts.
Likewise, tens of thousands of Virginia Beach citizens who are struggling with slow DSL, non-existent cellular wireless, or no home broadband at all are no less enthusiastic about Space Mobile satellite becoming available to them. Especially lower income families or elderly residents who did not have a digital device before now expect to gain access to new educational and occupational avenues due to this Dish Network deal.
Some are more skeptical about Dish Network’s ability to bring those technological advancements envisioned by Space Mobile to fruition. There is some sort of doubt about Dish’s assertion of the speeds and latency until actual networks are constructed locally.
The detractors also raise the observation that data quotas limit satellite internet no matter what happens with the satellites and the transmission. Dish has not provided details regarding the Space Mobile data cap or how much it reduces the speed of data-intensive activities such as video streaming or gaming. However, restrictive data plans may limit the advantage of satellite coverage especially for households regarding transmission speeds.
Looking Ahead
Although Dish Network is yet to launch satellite broadband services in Virginia Beach through 2023, the residents and city leaders gesture towards the company’s contract as a positive step to counter digital divide problems in both urban and rural regions. Virginia Beach might set an excellent example for other municipalities across the United States that face disparities when it comes to Internet access if utilizing satellite solutions. This means the integration of partnerships between public and private investments to avoid leaving behind communities as technology advances.
Thus, having Space Mobile satellite terminals ready for fast growth, Dish Network looks ready to repeat Virginia Beach’s satellite internet deal with other areas if consumers are excited about the service.
For now, Virginia Beach has gone out in the frontline to ensure that every house across the city gets connected to the world in the modern<|reserved_special_token_265|> of having access to the internet irrespective of where they live or the amount of money one has. The extensive use of the internet opens educational, healthcare, and economic opportunities for thousands of citizens and helps Virginia Beach retain and attract the talent needed for all industries. This Dish Network deal assists in making Virginia Beach one of the prominent opportunity cities for the development of 21st-century infrastructure and services.
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