American Rescue Plan Fuels Virginia’s Universal Broadband Efforts

On July 2, 2018, then-Governor Ralph Northam (D-VA) introduced that the Commonwealth of Virginia ought to obtain functionally common broadband protection inside 10 years. Reaching that objective could be no simple feat. On the time, Virginia was investing simply $4 million a yr into its broadband program and 660,000 Virginians didn’t have entry to high-speed web. This week, Virginia’s efforts obtained a giant increase when the U.S. Division of Treasury authorized practically $220 million to assist broadband deployment tasks within the Commonwealth.

Virginia’s Digital Divide

Virginia’s broadband challenges are multifaceted. In our 2020 report Broadband for America Now, we discovered that in rural areas of Virginia, practically a 3rd of households haven’t any entry to broadband. And even in city communities the place broadband was accessible in Virginia, it could not have been inexpensive. The truth is, the census tracts with the bottom broadband adoption charges within the Commonwealth on the time weren’t in rural Virginia however in Richmond.(1) 

in Could 2022, Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) introduced the state’s digital divide was even greater than beforehand reported. The Virginia Division of Housing and Group Improvement (DHCD) analyzed information for the Virginia Broadband Availability Map that confirmed 234,708 areas in Virginia with web entry beneath 25 Mbps obtain 3 Mbps add speeds (the thresholds for broadband set by the Federal Communications Fee), whereas greater than 206,700 areas reported no service in any respect—for a complete of 441,435 areas which can be unserved.

Commonwealth Join

Between 2018 and the top of 2021, Virginia’s complete broadband deployment funding reached over $2 billion. The 2020 Commonwealth Join plan detailed how Virginia is working in the direction of common broadband by means of 4 important tracks:

1. Elevated state grants to public/non-public partnerships to construct broadband to unserved communities

2. Coverage modifications to speed up common broadband

Together with elevated state funding, the Commonwealth handed laws in 2021 aimed toward bringing down the prices for constructing broadband, growing competitors, and serving to localities increase matching funds. The 2021 legal guidelines enable Appalachian Energy and Dominion Power to supply “center mile” fiber to unserved areas of the state with the hope of bringing down the price of entry for broadband suppliers and reducing electrical charges since any revenues that the utilities generate from leasing fiber to suppliers will return to ratepayers. And a 2019 legislation permits localities to ascertain particular service districts for the needs of broadband growth. Like when a neighborhood pays for its personal snow removing, now a neighborhood or sub-locality can turn into a service district and lift its personal taxes for the needs of broadband growth.

3. Higher assist and sources for native broadband planning

To assist native leaders develop and execute a neighborhood plan for common broadband, the Commonwealth Join workforce developed a complete toolkit for native leaders. This toolkit features a step-by-step information, mannequin broadband solicitations, FAQs, and rather more.

4. Convening over 100 broadband stakeholders within the Commonwealth Join Coalition 

Supporting the objective of common broadband in Virginia is the Commonwealth Join Coalition, a various coalition of greater than 100 completely different commerce associations, Fortune 500 corporations, non-profits, and broadband suppliers. The coalition which is led by the state’s chief broadband adviser, engages these various stakeholders to advance the state’s broadband coverage.

New Administration, Further Ways

Since taking workplace, Gov. Youngkin has emphasised broadband as an financial and social precedence and believes each Virginian ought to have web entry at speeds of a minimum of 100 Mbps obtain and 20 Mbps add. Along with extra granular broadband mapping, this Spring, Virginia enacted 4 legal guidelines meant to deal with the Commonwealth’s digital divide:

1. Starting within the 2022 faculty yr and in every faculty yr thereafter by means of 2025, every faculty board is required to submit an annual report back to the Virginia Division of Training and the Virginia Division of Housing and Group Improvement itemizing every pupil’s tackle that doesn’t have broadband entry.
2. Virginia modified its gross sales and use tax exemption for amplification, transmission, and distribution tools used to supply web companies. Beginning July 1, 2022, the exemption will apply to community tools used to supply web service, no matter whether or not the supplier of such service can also be a phone widespread provider or whether or not such community can also be used to supply companies apart from web companies.
3. The Virginia Division of Housing and Group Improvement will convene a stakeholder advisory group for the aim of evaluating native and state insurance policies, procedures, or ordinances to facilitate the growth of high-speed broadband service and related infrastructure in new residential and business improvement. The stakeholder advisory group can be composed of representatives from the business and residential land improvement and development business, native authorities, and high-speed broadband suppliers (and different stakeholders as decided by the division) and can report its findings and proposals to the Commonwealth’s Broadband Advisory Council no later than September 30, 2022. The Broadband Advisory Council is a 17-member physique that advises Virginia’s governor on coverage and funding priorities to expedite deployment and cut back the price of broadband entry within the Commonwealth. By statute, the council is comprised of 17 members: seven legislative members, six non-legislative citizen members, and 4 ex officio members.
4. The Division of Housing and Group Improvement will develop—by December 1, 2022—the Commonwealth Digital Affordability and Price Effectiveness Plan to entry federal funding below the federal Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act. The plan will embody:
   • an summary of choices for inexpensive broadband connectivity within the Commonwealth;
   • suggestions on how finest to leverage federal grants addressing broadband affordability;
   • finest practices for establishing a broadband affordability program, bearing in mind current federal funds and applications; and
   • suggestions for public outreach.

Enter Capital Initiatives Funds Assist

On June 7, 2022, the U.S. Division of Treasury authorized $219.8 million for Virginia to increase last-mile broadband entry to an estimated 76,873 areas, roughly 28% of areas the state estimates lack entry to 25/3 broadband service. The funding comes from the U.S. Division of the Treasury and the American Rescue Plan’s Coronavirus Capital Initiatives Fund (CPF). The CPF supplies $10 billion to states, territories, freely related states, and Tribal governments to fund vital capital tasks that allow work, training, and well being monitoring in response to the general public well being emergency. A key precedence of this system is to make funding accessible for dependable, inexpensive broadband infrastructure and different digital connectivity know-how tasks.

With CPF assist, the Virginia Division of Housing and Group Improvement will oversee a aggressive grantmaking program, the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative (VATI). Functions for VATI assist should be submitted by a unit of presidency (cities, cities, counties, financial and industrial improvement authorities, broadband or wi-fi authorities, planning district commissions, and so on) with a private-sector supplier (or suppliers) as a co-applicant. Eligible tasks should be owned and operated by the non-public sector co-applicant. Publicly owned networks are eligible for this system when partnered with a personal sector co-applicant, as long as the non-public sector applicant is serving because the customer-facing web service supplier. Public broadband authorities might apply instantly for VATI funds with out funding from the non-public sector, however Virginia has capped the accessible funding by means of state grants for such tasks.

Awardees can be chosen by means of a aggressive software course of. Software questions can be targeted on the applicant’s broadband wants in addition to info associated to ready-to-construct venture(s) needing monetary help to complement development prices. The applicant should display a readiness to proceed with an awarded venture in a well timed method by the required deadline. The state grant program required candidates to supply entry to broadband speeds at or above 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) obtain and 20 Megabits (Mbps) add. 

VATI additionally prepares communities to construct, make the most of, and capitalize on telecommunications infrastructure with the objective of making robust, aggressive communities. In unserved localities, Virginia’s broadband workforce serves as advisors to native governments and teams of native governments to help them in: 

• Discovering accomplice broadband suppliers with whom they will develop a plan;
• Figuring out seemingly prices for a common protection plan; and
• Establishing and together with in any planning effort these property the neighborhood or communities might should assist such a plan.

Beforehand, VATI was funded by the Commonwealth finances at $50 million yearly and had related over 24,000 properties, companies, and neighborhood anchors by mid-2021.

The present VATI software window opened on June 2; purposes are due by August 25, 2022. DHCD plans to announce award winners in late December of this yr.

Will Virginia Take part within the BEAD Program?

On Could 18, the Division of Commerce’s Nationwide Telecommunications and Data Administration introduced that 34 states and territories have formally indicated that they intend to take part Web for All initiative, which can make investments $45 billion to supply inexpensive, dependable broadband to everybody in America, most notably by means of the Broadband Fairness, Entry, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Virginia has not indicated its intent to take action but. Virginia is eligible for a minimum of $100 million in assist. Simply submitting a letter of intent and a planning funds finances will unlock as much as $5 million in planning funds and permit Virginia to start creating its five-year motion plan.

Notes

1. United States Census Bureau, “Forms of Computer systems and Web Subscriptions,” American Group Survey – 2018, accessible at https://tinyurl.com/ACSInternetSubs2018
2. Capital Initiatives Fund Award Truth Sheet Virginia https://residence.treasury.gov/system/recordsdata/136/CPF-Award-Truth-Sheet-VA-June-…

Kevin Taglang is the manager editor on the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society.