‘It’s been an absolute mess’: Hanover woman frustrated with repeated internet outages

HANOVER COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Frustrations are growing in west Hanover County over what residents say has been years of unreliable internet service.

Brianne Jackson reached out to 8News after she said she’s experienced 20 internet outages this summer alone.

As a college dean, Jackson said this is a busy time of year and not having internet has made it difficult for her to work from home. She said Monday’s outage was so disruptive, she had to find another way to stay connected.

“I just decided to get a hotel for the week,” Jackson said. “That’s the only way I can guarantee I have cellular signal, that I’m able to do my work, check emails… basically function.”

Residents in the region said spotty cell service is also a persistent problem, so they rely heavily on Wi-Fi. Without it, she said, she’s unable to contact loved ones or even call 911 in an emergency.

“I just feel like we’re completely ignored,” she said.

Hanover County acknowledged the latest outage in a Facebook post on Tuesday, saying Brightspeed — the internet service provider tied to the disruption — is under contract with the state, not the county. Therefore, Hanover doesn’t have authority over Brightspeed’s operations or service.

In an update, the County said the outage was resolved on Wednesday afternoon, yet some residents say the underlying issue hasn't been addressed.

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8News reached out to Brightspeed to understand what led to the most recent outage. A spokesperson with the company provided the following statement:

“Our number one priority is providing our customers with the critical voice and internet services they depend on. Unfortunately, we experienced multiple cable cuts that impacted service to our customers in Hanover County. Third-party crews working in the area damaged our infrastructure on two separate occasions this week. When this happens, we immediately dispatch our repair technicians to replace the infrastructure and restore services as promptly as possible. In this case, we also alerted county officials of the service interruptions and provided an update as we worked to repair the damage. Our crews repaired the damage and restored services within a matter of a few hours. When our customers experience prolonged outages, we do offer credits to their bill. At this time, we do not have any widespread outages in the area. We are addressing the repeated damage reports with the crews responsible for the damage.”

Jackson said repeated mistakes point to a larger problem and a lack of accountability.

“Accidentally cutting a line is not acceptable,” she said. “In almost any other line of work, if the same error keeps happening over and over again, someone from management would step in and say, ‘Hey, maybe we need to rethink this.’”

Deputy County Administrator, Todd Kilduff, said the county is actively working to mitigate future outages with the ‘Connect Hanover’ Broadband Initiative. When complete, Kilduff said the project will connect 6,198 homes and business in the county’s rural areas to reliable highspeed fiber.

According to Kilduff, almost 200 miles of new fiber has been installed and nearly 100 homes have been connected.

The project is expected to be completed by the fall of 2026.