Two Virginia broadband stories this month are really the same story told twice: infrastructure changing hands. In Rockingham County, Verizon has begun telling customers their copper phone lines are being retired. In Bedford County, supervisors have taken a stalled fiber project away from one contractor and handed it to another.
Verizon starts moving Rockingham County off copper
On 08-Sep-2026, WHSV reported that Rockingham County residents had received letters from Verizon about the retirement of its legacy copper network. The replacement Verizon is offering is VoiceConnect, a wireless service that keeps your existing handsets working and supports battery backup and E911. Residents told the station their concern is geography rather than technology: some report fiber stopping roughly two and a half miles short of their homes, in areas where cellular coverage is already thin.
Verizon’s position, as given to WHSV, is that receiving a letter is not a disconnection notice. The company said it will not discontinue a customer’s copper voice service if a suitable replacement is not yet available, and described the notice as the start of a multi-step regulatory process. No cut-off date has been published. If you got a letter, the number printed on it is the way to find out what is actually available at your address.
Bedford County hands its New London project to ZiTEL
On 18-Aug-2026, The News & Advance reported that Bedford County supervisors voted unanimously to contract with ZiTEL, a Bedford County-based provider, to finish the Broadband 2026 New London Project after ending its partnership with RiverStreet Networks. County government relations manager John Putney told the board that RiverStreet is serving about 2,150 of the roughly 3,200 planned addresses, has completed about 180 of 265 planned fiber miles, and has somewhere around 500 subscribers.
This is a different project from the West Broadband handover in Franklin, Henry and Patrick counties, though it involves the same outgoing contractor. ZiTEL has pledged a 50 percent cost match with no additional cost to the county beyond what was already committed, and a ten-month completion timeline. Separately, federal and state broadband officials are recommending that the remaining roughly 1,600 Bedford County addresses still needing service be routed through ZiTEL under the BEAD program. Putney said ZiTEL was the only provider to submit a proposal; the county turned away fixed wireless interest because it insisted on fiber.
What this means if you live in Virginia
If you have a Verizon landline in the Shenandoah Valley, read the letter rather than acting on it. You are entitled to a replacement being available before your service ends, and VoiceConnect is designed so your own phones keep working. If you depend on that line during power cuts, ask specifically about battery backup.
In Bedford County, a signed contract with a ten-month clock is real progress on a project stalled since 2022 — but it is a construction schedule, not a service date, and addresses will come online in stages. Until then the usable options in much of the county remain T-Mobile home internet where tower capacity allows and Starlink or HughesNet where nothing else reaches.