Report of the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, broadband — Commonwealth of Virginia, January 2, 2024

Summary

This is a report dated January 2, 2024 from the Office of the Governor, Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren DeWitt Merrick, on trends in broadband in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It describes the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative, administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), as the largest state-funded broadband program, and says a passing is unserved if it lacks speeds of 100 Megabits per second download and 20 Megabits upload. The key takeaways from the report submitted in November 2023 include 310,074 passings from FY22 and FY23 projects, $1.136 billion in private and local match funding, and 50,305 locations with broadband access from FY22 projects. It also says over 92% of projects funded in FY22 and FY23 offer gigabit (1,000 Mbps) download speeds.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

                                   COMMONWEALTH of VIR·GINIA
                                                       Office of the Gown10r
Caren DeWitt Merrick
ecretaf) of Commerce and Trade

            January 2, 2024


            Please find below the report of the Secretary of Commerce and Trade made pursuant to § 2.2-
            206.3(9) of the Code of Virginia of 1950 (as amended), which provides in pertinent part:

                      9. Monitor the trends in the availability and deployment of and access to broadband
                      communications services, which include but are not limited to competitively priced, high­
                      speed data services and Internet access services of general application, tluoughout the
                      Commonwealth and advancements in communications technology for deployment
                      potential. The Secretary shall report annually by December 1 to the Governor and
                      General Assembly on those trends.

                    Through both state and federally funded broadband expansion programs, the
             Commonwealth of Virginia continues to close the digital divide between those who do and those
             who do not have access to high-speed internet. Virginia funds broadband deployment within the
             Commonwealth through several programs. The largest and main state-funded program is the
             Virginia Telecommunication Initiative (VA TI).

                     Administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development
             (DHCD), VATl enhances the sustainability and growth of communities throughout the
             Commonwealth by preparing those communities to build, utilize, and capitalize on broadband
             infrastructure. The primary objective of VA TI is to provide financial assistance to supplement
             construction costs by private sector broadband service providers to extend service to areas that
             presently are unserved by any broadband provider.

                     VATI provides grants to localities partnered with internet service providers to finance the
             deployment of high-speed broadband to locations (called a "passing") within the Commonwealth
             that are determined to be "unserved." Passings are places where the internet can be accessed -
             thus it could be a business, community anchor, a home, or an apartment complex. A passing is
             unserved I if it lacks access to internet speeds of 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and
             20 Megabits (Mbps) up load (" 100/20").




             1 In the FY22 VATI process, the definition of unserved was set at 25/3. This definition of unserved has been
             upgraded to those passings lacking access to broadband at speeds of I 00/20 for the FY23 VA Tl process.

                                       Patrick Hcnr:,• Building• l 111 East Broad • Richmond. Virginia 23219
                                                        (804) 786-2211 • TTY l800) 828-1120
                                                              www.go\ rnor. \' irgin ia.go\
         In a separate reporting process to the General Assembly, Item 115 L.6. of the 2022 Acts
of Assembly Special Session I requires that DHCD deliver an annual performance report on
funds awarded through the 2021 Acts of Assembly Special Session I (also known as the budget
bill) of allocated ARPA funds and Item 114, Paragraph L. of Chapter 552, 2021 Acts of
Assembly, Special Session I (General funds allocated to VA Tl through the budget bill). This
report, as submitted for the 2023 reporting year, can be found at this link2. Below are the key
takeaways from the report, which was submitted in November 2023:

              • Total passings: VATl FY22 and FY23 projects will provide access to broadband
                infrastructure to 310,074 passings across Virginia.
              • Leveraged local and private funding: In addition to $778. 7 million in state and
                federal funding awarded, FY22 and FY23 projects leverage a total of $1.136 billion
                in private and local match funding, of which over $138.2 million has been
                expended to-date.
              • Locations Built-To: To date, FY22 projects have provided broadband access to
                50,305 locations, which is within 90% of the projected connections for this time
                period. The 14 FY23 projects are recently getting under contract and will begin
                final engineering and design, as well as construction in 2024.
              • Maximum Speeds Available: Over 92% of projects funded in FY22 and FY23 offer
                gigabit (1,000 Mbps) download speeds, and over 67% offer gigabit upload speeds.

         In addition to these state funded expansion activities, as well as other directly federally
funded programs, broadband providers in the Commonwealth continue to privately fund
expansion of their networks to both unserved areas, as well as to currently served areas as an
additional option for service. The exact number of locations built out under these categories is
unknown because of inconsistencies in data sources and underlying maps that would permit
tracking these trends. Anecdotally, broadband providers have built out thousands of previously
unserved locations in areas where population density has become dense enough to justify network
expansion. Thousands of more locations over the last year have been provided a second, or third
option for broadband services through broadband providers in privately funded expansion efforts.
These trends are expected to grow as historically cellular providers as well as low earth orbit
satellite providers continue to advertise home broadband service offerings.

Both government-funded as well as private expansion activities across the Commonwealth will
continue to close the digital divide across the Commonwealth. Both innovative solutions, as well
as best practices to streamline construction of these networks to the unserved will be paramount
to accomplishing the Commonwealth's goals of universal connectivity. With the upcoming
opportunities under the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program,
Virginia will achieve universal broadband access across the Commonwealth to the estimated
162, 107 locations that lack broadband access and are outside of a state or federally funded
project area. The BEAD program also presents the opportunity for the Commonwealth to address
gaps in broadband affordability and adoption. By designing programs that advance broadband
adoption through digital literacy, smart farming, telehealth, online entrepreneurship, and digital

2
    https://rga.lis.virginia.gov/Published/2023/RD626
skills the Commonwealth will be able to holistically address the digital divide through the BEAD
program.


Sincerely,              •


   

Caren Merrick


File and source

File

2024-RD10.pdf

Size

530,990 bytes

SHA-256

10a7c3fc2473433e3edbd56fd7d5fe78e24e7cc367fc1a16edac147564ee4cb5

Our copy

2024-RD10.pdf

Original

No public link identified.