Many people who are thinking of moving to Northumberland County are discouraged to learn that only a few areas of the county have high-speed broadband service available.

OUR NEIGHBORHOOD — POTOMAC BAY ESTATES — HAS BROADBAND INTERNET, TV AND DIGITAL TELEPHONE SERVICE VIA OPTICAL FIBER CABLE.

Atlantic Broadband (originally Metrocast) installed optical fiber “to the curb” into our neighborhood in 2015 . . .  on each lot is an optical fiber connection over which you can get high speed internet, TV, and digital phone service.  Atlantic Broadband has several service plans that enable you to choose one, two or all three services.  There is a connection fee to connect from the roadside pedestal into your home.

Our broadband Internet is reliably 125-150 MB/S download, 15 – 20 MB/S upload.  Outages are infrequent and, when they do occur, are usually of short duration.

Most of Northumberland County does not have broadband service; residents in areas without broadband have limited choices for Internet service.

• Dial-up.  That’s right, old, slow dial-up through a telephone modem.
• Wireless Internet through (1) one of several satellite services, or,  (2) 3G/4G service from Verizon through cell phone towers, or, other wireless providers from their towers spotted around the county.  This wireless service is subject to weather and other outages.

None of these services provide the speed and reliability of the fiber optic service in our neighborhood.

Many of us in the neighborhood use satellite TV services, either DirecTV or Dish.  Landline phone service is available through Verizon.  Several cell phone services are available although for some of them coverage is spotty.

To summarize — in our neighborhood:

• TV service:  Atlantic Broadband over fiber optic cable, or, satellite TV from DirecTV or DishTV.
• Telephone:  Landline from Verizon; digital landline (VoIP) from Atlantic Broadband; cellular telephone from several providers.
• Internet:  Broadband Internet from Atlantic Broadband; other providers listed below.

Most of our neighborhood uses  Atlantic Broadband.

We are one of the few places in Northumberland County with broadband Internet service.

Other Internet/broadband providers

There are other sources of broadband service in our neighborhood.

Virginia Broadband.  This company provides wireless boradband service; they install an antenna on your housse and you connect through one of their local towers.  Contact Virginia Broadband through this link.

HughesNet.  This is a satellite Internet service that requires an antenna similar to a satellite TV antenna.  Here is a link to HughesNet.

Verizon.  While Verizon does not offer dedicated Internet service, they do have reliable cell phone service in our neighborhood.  You can purchase a “hotspot” from Verizon (monthly charge applies); the hotspot connects to the Verizon cell system and to the Internet through that connection.