VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A Virginia Beach technology company will help operate a fiber-optic network ring that aims to bring ultrafast internet to Southside Hampton Roads, the Southside Network Authority (SNA) announced Tuesday.
The authority said it reached an interim public-private partnership agreement with Global Technical Systems (GTS) for the operations, maintenance and marketing of the 119-mile, 288-strand fiber ring.
GTS will lease 96 strands of the ring when its construction is finished, as well as provide maintenance and marketing services.
The company will serve residential and business customers, institutional users (universities, schools, health organizations, etc.), economic development efforts and historically disadvantaged communities.
The SNA's announcement comes almost a year after officials from the five Southside cities — Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk — broke ground on the ring in April 2022.
It will run through all of those cities, as well as connect to Europe and Africa via transatlantic subsea fiber optic cables, allowing large files to cross the ocean quickly.
The SNA has touted the ring as a game changer for Hampton Roads, saying it will allow the region to recruit high-tech businesses, enhance military operations and expand internet access to underserved areas.
Norfolk City Councilwoman Andria McClellan, who chairs the SNA, said the agreement is an important next step for "solidifying Hampton Roads as a digital port."
"We are eager and excited about this unprecedented high-speed access to attract new high-tech business, to support our educational and research institutions, and to bring new internet service providers, with the goal of creating internet competition, lowering prices and increasing speeds for residents," McClellan wrote in a news release.
On its website, the SNA said the ring is expected to become operational in late 2023. The authority awarded Danella Construction a $24.5 million contract to construct the ring over 18 months.
For more information about the project, visit the SNA's website.
