Governor Northam Announces More Than $29.6 Million to Expand Broadband Access
RICHMOND Governor Ralph Northam today announced that Virginians living and working in 11 localities will gain access high-speed internet thanks to more than $29.6 million in grants awarded through the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative (VATI). The funding will support five projects, connecting more than 11,700 households, businesses, and anchor institutions to broadband service, and leveraging over $34 million in private and local investments.
Administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), VATI provides targeted financial assistance to extend broadband service to areas that are currently unserved by a provider. In his 2020 budget, Governor Northam made an historic investment of nearly $50 million in VATI funding. His proposed budget invests an additional $15 million in fiscal year 2022 to maintain this significant level of funding.
At the onset of global lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Internet usage spiked between 50% and 70%, and streaming increased by 12%, according to Forbes.
Light Reading s Women in Comms recently caught up with Cheri Beranek, president and CEO of Clearfield, to discuss how the pandemic has impacted broadband demand, fiber infrastructure and the industry s efforts to close the digital divide.
Beranek co-founded the fiber optic product manufacturing company in 2007 and has worked in the telecom and technology industries since 1987. With my first positions in marketing, I was really good at being able to work with engineers and take the value proposition of the technology that they were developing and turn that into meaning for our prospective customers and clients, says Beranek.
Tue, Jan 26th 2021 6:19am
Karl Bode
As we ve noted a few times, there s an underlying belief in American tech policy that if we just keep
throwing money at entrenched broadband monopolies we can lift US broadband out of the depths of mediocrity. But as we ve noted more than a few times, heavily subsidizing a bunch of regional monopolies, while not doing anything about the conditions that created and insulate those monopolies, doesn t result in much changing. It s especially ineffective when you don t really punish ISPs for decades of taking taxpayer money in exchange for network upgrades that almost always, like clockwork, wind up unfinished.
Low-Earth orbit [LEO] satellite operator OneWeb is weeks away from inking agreements with telecom network operators for services like cellular backhaul and disaster recovery, according to a top executive with the firm. I have already spoken to at least a dozen CEOs of telecoms companies. I think they are all excited to work with us. Give me 90 days, and we will start to announce MoUs [memorandums of understanding] and agreements with all of these companies, Sunil Bharti Mittal told Via Satellite. Mittal is founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises, part of a consortium that purchased OneWeb out of bankruptcy.
Bharti Global the owner of Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel and the UK government each hold 45% of OneWeb, with existing creditors, including Japan s SoftBank, owning the remaining 10%. OneWeb s total funding has reached $1.4 billion, and the company already operates dozens of LEO satellites, with plans to launch hundreds more.