FAQ

A: Fiber to the home is now available many areas of the Eastern Shore.  Please check our residential page to see if it is available for you.

A: Any services the Authority offers would be on an open access basis. We are a public authority established under the Virginia Wireless Service Authorities Act. That Act requires that our activities be governed by Chapter 15, Title 56 regarding public authorities offering communication services, Paragraph 56-484-7.1 B.

A: The ESVBA’s network consists of two major components:

1. The Backbone– This part of the ESVBA’s network begins at Wallops Island and runs south along the Eastern Shore of Virginia to Virginia Beach. Along this route, regeneration facilities are located in Wallops Island, Tasley, Exmore and Cheriton.

2. Community Networks– This part of the ESVBA’s network consists of regionalized networks that are connected to the backbone. Examples of the operational community broadband networks are:

a. Chincoteague
b. Parksley
c. Onancock
d. Belle Haven
e. Exmore
f. Willis Wharf
g. Nassawadox
h. Eastville
i. Cape Charles

Also see our coverage map here.

A: An E-LAN is a multipoint-to-multipoint Ethernet Virtual connection defined by the Metro Ethernet Forum. It allows for a connection of three or more sites into one common broadcast domain. An E-LAN provides Layer-2 and above connectivity between multiple sites across the wide area and any site to any site communication.

A: An E-Line is a point-to-point Ethernet Virtual connection defined by the Metro Ethernet Forum. It allows for a Layer-2 connection between two sites This service only allows customer traffic between the two sites that terminate the E-Line service and the backbone core sites.

A: SONET stands for Synchronous Optical Networking and is a protocol standardized by Telcordia in GR-253-CORE as a transport system using a digital hierarchy for transporting traffic frames over a synchronous infrastructure. SONET is essentially traffic neutral and can transport TDM, ATM, Ethernet and other protocols as well as being built with framing that supports error reporting and a capability of being highly fault-tolerant and extremely low fail over times.

A: The Internet uses a numbering system that was built to number each unique device and that numbering system is IPv4. The IPv4 numbering system had a limit of 32 bits which limited the total number of address to approximately 4 billion addresses (4.3×10^9). Over the decades since IPv4 became widely used and integrated into more and more organizations, the IPv4 space has become exhausted. IPv6 is the successor to IPv4 with limit of 128 bits which limits the total number of addresses to 340 undecillion addresses (3.4×10^38). This huge range is created to alleviate the IP address constraint as well as add features to a protocol that has been employed for almost four decades.

A: That depends on your needs and uses.  Below are a few guidelines:

Bandwidth 4-6Mbps – Most users with 4-6 Mbps typically will have smooth sailing if they are emailing or, in some cases, streaming music.

But online gaming applications, which might require much higher speeds, could fail at this connection tier, depending on the network traffic.

What You Can Do: File sharing (small/medium files), IPTV (Internet TV services)*

Bandwidth 6-10Mbps – This connection speed as a “good middle ground” for most subscribers at home, especially those who like to watch TV or movies on their home computer.

What You Can Do: Online gaming, video on demand (on a single device)*

Bandwidth 10-20Mbps – This speed tier is quickly becoming the new normal – sort of like going 65 mph on the highway. And at this 10-20 Mbps tier, broadband subscribers will detect sharp increases in download performances.

What You Can Do: Telemedicine (health care via telecommunication), remote Education (distance education programming), IPTV High Definition (HD TV programming)*

What You Can Do: HD video surveillance

Bandwidth > 50Mbps – Video conferencing (multiple users), remote supercomputing, real-time data collection, real-time medical image consultation.

A: All of these technologies represent different mediums to get bandwidth from one point to another.

• Wireless technologies have larger distance limitations, there is often issues with the path and line of site where the central tower and the customer site need line of site.  This technology is greatly affected by weather and atmospheric services.  The distances can be several miles but still mostly require line of site as well as placing hardware on the outside of structures to receive and transmit the service.  As wireless technologies improves, bandwidths continue to increase however, this technology is still fairly limited. Most wireless technologies are between 1-100Mbps unless using licensed services such as microwave.
• DSL technology is a technology using the existing copper infrastructure to provide broadband without having to rebuild the network.  DSL technologies can provide fairly large bandwidths (up to 50Mbps) at distances ~2-3miles but require good copper from the incumbent phone company.
• FTTH stands for fiber to the home.  This technology is using fiber which is a very reliable medium as well as has great characteristics for driving signals ~1-50Miles without being repeated.  This technology also provides the most bandwidth as it just requires a laser replacement and can continue to scale.  Bandwidth is easily up to 100s of Mbps.