With many of its residents still relying on dial-up and copper-based services, the County of Rockbridge, Virginia, estimates the region has a broadband adoption rate below 40 percent. Through the Rockbridge Area Network Authority (RANA), a public-private partnership that includes local governments and Washington and Lee University, the Rockbridge Broadband Initiative proposes to construct 134 miles of new fiber in west central Virginia to bring broadband services to community anchor institutions in support of improved healthcare, education, and public safety in the region. The new network is intended to cover the entire community, reaching as far north as Goshen and as far south as Natural Bridge, and would include two segments running west from Lexington to Collierstown and Kerrs Creek and east to Buena Vista. The project also proposes to link 95 percent of all public safety entities, mitigating the area’s decades-old public safety communication challenges created by mountainous terrain.