The history: Cellphone and broadband in Rappahannock

1990: Adelphia Communications -later purchased by Comcast and Time Warner -- installs

cable lines along Rt. 522 south from Front Royal through Flint Hill to Washington, then east to Amissville and west for parts of Sperryville. e main purpose is to provide cable TV access, but it also becomes the best source of broadband internet service in the county. 2000: Sprint proposes construction of seven cell towers so tall they would require lights. But a er county o cials and residents strongly object, Sprint revises its plan, recommending that three of the towers be replaced with “stealth” silos and another with a fake tree. ree additional monopoles would be erected between Amissville and Ben Venue, including one behind the Amissville Fire and Rescue Station. County supervisors approved the new proposal.

2007: As part of its first formal e ort to facilitate expanded broadband service, the county appoints a Broadband Initiative Committee. Its report recommends that the county ask Embarq if additional

DSL service can be extended from a phone “wire center” in Flint Hill. e cost, however, was determined to be too high. e county also amends its zoning provisions regarding wooden poles to allow them to be used for providing wireless broadband service.

2015: January: e Rappahannock County School Board rejects a plan by Community Wireless Services to erect a monopole at the high school and then lease space on the pole to cell service providers.

July: A “Broadband Forum,” sponsored by the county and the Greater Piedmont Association of Realtors, is held at Rappahannock County High School, with the goal of raising awareness of how increasingly dependent agriculture, health care and tourism have become on broadband access. December: County supervisors approve a proposal by T-Mobile to add an antenna to the Sprint fake silo along Rt. 211 and opposite Washington.