The Mount Rogers Planning District Commission and Point Broadband netted a $7.87 million share of a $20.1 million grant package aimed at improving broadband infrastructure in 17 localities.
The Virginia Telecommunication Inititative grants will support 11 projects, according to Gov. Ralph Northam, and connect more than 13,400 households, businesses and institution to high speed internet.
The Mount Rogers project will extend an existing broadband network in Smyth, Washington and Wythe counties and the town of Damascus. According to the governor’s office, new construction will bring access to 5,301, including 110 businesses.
Since 2018, Virginia has invested more than $73.1 million through VATI to connect a total of 76,351 Virginians to broadband service.
“Quality broadband service is key to growing our economy, and learning, competing, and succeeding in today’s digial world,” said Northam. “This funding will have an enormous impact on thousands on unserved Virginians and bring us closer to our goal of every community in our Commonwealth having access to high-speed internet.”
Administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), VATI provides targeted financial assistance to extend broadband service to areas that are unserved by an internet service provider. This is the second round of funding for the VATI 2021 program year, and in total, more than $49.8 million has been awarded for 28 localities, connecting over 25,000 households, businesses, and anchor institutions. Governor Northam and the General Assembly made an historic investment of nearly $50 million in VATI funding during the November 2020 legislative session that enabled this significant increase in Virginians served. The Governor and General Assembly maintained this historic funding in the recent budget for next fiscal year.
“With the historic investment made by Governor Northam and the General Assembly, the Commonwealth is showing its commitment to broadband expansion for areas in need,” said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. “This round of grants will support the vital infrastructure needed for high-speed internet, ensuring more communities have access to the necessities of modern life.”
Projects were selected through a competitive process that evaluated each project for demonstrated need and benefit for the community, applicant readiness and capacity, and the cost and leverage of the proposed project. The level of funding awarded is based on the infrastructure needs in the project area.
In this application year, VATI received 45 applications from 53 units of local government that partnered with 26 internet service providers, requesting more than $105 million in funding. Five projects were announced in January<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.> in the first round of grants, and those projects were either unaffected by the Federal Communications Commission’s Phase I of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) preliminary awards or have already been re-scoped by the applicant to remove overlap with RDOF funded areas. This second round of awards are the remaining high-ranked projects, including those that had been re-scoped and re-evaluated due to the impact of RDOF. Additional information on VATI is available here<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp>.
Others receiving funds include: Mathews County and Atlantic Broadband, which netted $4.2 million; Albemarle County and CenturyLink, which received $2.3 million; King and Queen County and RiverStreet, which got $1.5 million; $1.3 million went to Augusta County and MGW/Lingo; Franklin County and Briscnet received $1.1 million; Montgomery County and Gigabeam received $919,569; Goochland County and Port 80 Internet Services LLC received $567,557.98; Gloucester County and Open Broadband got $342,657; Chesapeake and Cox Cable received $90,177; and Halifax County and EMPOWER Broadband netted $65,776.
