The broadband split in Northern Virginia

[Commentary] By some accounts, about 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic passes through Loudoun County, Virginia daily. But if you happen to live in more rural western Loudoun, good luck getting decent Internet service. Courtney Shipe, according to the Times-Mirror, lives near Lovettsville and is hard-pressed to find an Internet provider. She has managed to get connected through Verizon through a DSL link but “almost daily, our phone line and internet service will randomly cut off for hours at a time,” she told the newspaper. It’s cold comfort when technicians tell her the problem isn’t on her end.

It’s seems bizarre that in 2017 parts of Northern Virginia are still stuck with pre-1990s modes of communications. But it’s something much of rural Virginia has been dealing with for years. The problem is simple economics. Big providers such as Verizon and Comcast favor densely populated suburban areas where their installation costs are low. They can boost their margins by bundling Internet with 300-plus channel cable television and phone service. President Donald Trump says he wants to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure but hasn’t come up with any solid details. Expanding broadband would be a win-win.