Status of progress under contract with Lumos

[Mike McIntyre]



Dear Ms. Hammersley, Mr. Myron, and Mr. Reynolds:

I am writing you to see if you would kindly be of assistance in finding out the the status of the progress by Lumos in proceeding with the broadband work for our neighborhood for which Orange County has engaged it.

Although Lumos has been very polite in correspondence over the last three years, we have continued to face delay after delay after delay in Lumos coming to our area, which is located on Headwaters Trail, and which begins at 4815 Old NC Highway 86. The addresses on our road are 110 (McIntyre), 116 (Miller), 121 (McLean) and 131 (Miller).

We were originally told three years ago in 2022 that broadband in our area would be in place soon. The anticipated date of service was expected by 2023 and then moved to 2024, neither of which ever happened, even though we had been receiving notices saying that the network was coming to our neighborhood and to expect construction. We are now over halfway through 2025, and still no work has been done, even though work is being done just down the road in the vicinity Old NC 86 at the intersection of New Hope Church Road and Arthur Minnis Rd to service yet another neighborhood instead of ours.

We have more recently been told that the plans show we are still supposed to receive service, but, according to Andrew Stevenson, Director of Marketing for Lumos, “the company does not have an updated projection for starting in your area“ and then we will have to wait until updates are posted on the county website as they are made available! No construction timeline is offered. We must just continue to wait and wait until updates are available, which means more potential delays even though we had previously been informed that it was coming 2-3 years ago.

Being in a neighborhood that homes are receiving only receiving up to 25 megabytes per second, and they get—on average—a speed of 12 megabytes per second, you can understand how exceedingly frustrating this continues to be, especially since we keep getting assurances that the work will be done, and it keeps getting delayed year after year after year.

Please kindly advise as to who with the county is monitoring this contract and when you expect timely performance by Lumos of its contract in our neighborhood, so that we will finally know when to expect service.

Thank you so much for your kind attention to this matter and for making broadband service in our area possible! We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Sincerely,

Douglas Carmichael “Mike” McIntyre II


Sent from my iPhone

[Robert Reynolds]

Dear Mr. McIntyre,

Thank you for email. Please be assured that the project remains a high priority. We are currently working on the planning and coordination necessary to advance to the next phase of work to ensure a responsible and effective continuation of the project. We acknowledge the importance of this initiative to our residents and appreciate your continued patience as we work to establish a clear and effective path forward.

The County remains firmly committed to expanding broadband access for all residents, with particular focus on those who are currently unserved or underserved. We will provide a more detailed update as soon as plans for the next phase of implementation are finalized. In the meantime, should you have further questions, please feel free to contact me directly.

Thank you,


Robert Reynolds
Chief Information Officer
Information Technologies | Orange County Government
O. 919.245.2276
M. 919.943.2904



-----Original Message-----
From: Mike McIntyre <cinn...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2025 2:59 PM
To: Bonnie Hammersley <bhamm...@orangecountync.gov>; Travis Myren <tmy...@orangecountync.gov>; Robert Reynolds <rorey...@orangecountync.gov>
Cc: James Bryan <jbr...@orangecountync.gov>; Andrew Stevenson <Andrew.S...@lumosfiber.com>; Jeff Brooks <jeffrey...@nc.gov>; James Corrin <jim.c...@nc.gov>; Ken McLean <mclea...@gmail.com>; Martha McLean <mclean...@gmail.com>; Mark Miller <markmi...@gmail.com>; Beth Miller <sassy...@aol.com>; ALL_BOCC_MANAGER_CLERK <OCB...@orangecountync.gov>
Subject: Status of progress under contract with Lumos

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[mike mcintyre]

Dear Mr. Reynolds:

Thank you for your letter of July 30. This coming weekend another month will have passed since we last received any update about Lumos and broadband service to the residents in our neighborhood.

You mentioned in your last correspondence that you would provide “a more detailed update as soon as plans for the next phase of implementation have been finalized”. Do you have any update on this matter?

Thank you for your continued attention to this matter and your emphasis on “the importance of this initiative”.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Mike McIntyre
Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 30, 2025, at 7:18 PM, Robert Reynolds <rorey...@orangecountync.gov> wrote:
>
> Dear Mr. McIntyre,

[Robert Reynolds]

Dear Mr. McIntyre,

Thank you for your follow-up and for your continued interest in the progress of broadband service in your neighborhood.

While I don’t have a finalized update to share at this time, I expect to have more information within the next week or two and will follow up with a detailed update as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, the county website, https://orangecountync.gov/2924/LumosARPA-Broadband-Project ,which was last updated on August 15th, 2025, has the most recent information available on the project. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to me directly.

Thank you again for your patience and understanding. I remain committed to keeping you informed as this effort moves forward.

Best regards,