U.S. Commerce Department approves Virginia’s bid for almost $1.5 billion for broadband access

A billion-dollar federal infusion for broadband access is officially on its way to Virginia.

The Department of Commerce announced Friday that it approved the commonwealth’s initial proposal for money from the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program (BEAD). Virginia can request about $1.48 billion in its quest to deliver the internet statewide.

Virginia, with its initial proposal approved, may now request 20% of the funding for immediate release, Assistant Secretary of Commerce Alan Davidson and Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development Director Bryan Horn said in a news conference on Friday.

Virginia has one year to submit a final proposal, detailing how it will ensure service to all unserved locations, according to a news release from Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, both D-Virginia. Once the final proposal is approved, the state can get the rest of the funds.

Virginia, in summer 2023, and New Mexico were the first two states in the nation to submit five-year plans and initial proposals to get shares of the $42.5 billion BEAD state grant program. BEAD was part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that Warner co-authored and that President Joe Biden signed in 2021. The Department of Commerce approved New Mexico’s $675 million proposal, as well.

It’s a generational infrastructure step that caps a quarter-century conversation about the need to make the internet accessible and affordable to everyone in the country, Davidson said.

“We finally have the resources to do something serious about it,” Davidson said.

A news release from commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration called the program “a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris Administration’s ‘Internet for All’ initiative.”

Once deployment goals are met, any remaining funding can be used on high-speed Internet adoption, training and workforce development efforts, among other eligible uses, according to the news release.

“It’s almost every locality around the state with areas that need additional connections,” Horn said.

Davidson said Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration developed a sophisticated plan for a program that is essential to education, employment and health care access.

“Virginia’s historic investment in broadband infrastructure is one key ingredient which helped drive our ranking as America’s top state to do business in 2024,” Youngkin said in the commerce department news release.

Virginia will use its $1.48 billion to reach an estimated 160,000 residences, businesses and such public institutions as schools, libraries, hospitals and safety organizations that are not yet in a broadband deployment project area, the governor’s office said last year .

An online tool called the Commonwealth Connection map shows that large rural swaths across the state are lacking access. About 66% of rural residents and about 84% of non-rural Virginians have broadband options, according to the state health department’s Rural Health Plan 2022-2026.

In a news release from VCTA-Broadband Association of Virginia, the organization’s president, Ray LaMura, credited the funding to “tireless work” from Horn and Tamarah Holmes of the housing and community development department.

The news comes two days after Youngkin announced that the state was granting $41.6 million to multiple localities that applied for funds to deliver internet access under the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative, known as VATI. Localities in Southwest and Southside Virginia will receive about $17 million.

VATI funding includes money from another pandemic-era federal bill, the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 — ARPA for short. Franklin County, which will receive $4.5 million of the VATI money, announced Friday that it will partner with internet service provider Zitel to install 222 miles across northern Franklin County and along U.S. 220 into the county’s south.

The work will add about 2,500 premises to the company’s coverage area, according to the Franklin County news release.

The Southside Planning District, which covers which covers Halifax, Mecklenburg and Brunswick counties, along with South Boston and South Hill — will receive $3.4 million. The planning district’s Erika Tanner said in an email Friday that with the award, the district will add service to 1,299 locations in Halifax County and 2,637 locations in Mecklenburg County, and will use existing infrastructure for construction at 47 southern Brunswick County locations.

Rockbridge County got two grants totaling $2.2 million for the county and ISP partners BARC Connects and Brightspeed. The BARC grant will extend its fiber broadband network to at least 283 unserved or underserved residences and businesses, according to a late Friday afternoon email from County Administrator Spencer Suter. The Brightspeed award will extend its
service to more than 1,700 locations, Suter wrote.

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