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.
Botetourt County, through a partnership with Internet service provider Lumos, will extend its broadband network in the county with a grant of $1,364,337. The project will bring broadband access to 548 serviceable units, including 30 businesses, through the construction of 59 miles of fiber-optic cable.
Administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), VATI provides targeted financial assistance to extend broadband service to areas that are currently not served by a provider.
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. The five projects announced today are the first round of high-ranked projects. These projects are either unaffected by the recently announced 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. A second round of awards of the remaining high-ranked projects, including those that have been re-scoped and re-evaluated due to the impact of RDOF will be announced utilizing the remaining available funds in the coming months.
