Virginia Governor Announces Major $12 million Broadband Initiative connecting five cities, 20 counties and 56 industrial parks in southern Virginia.

Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner announced a $12 million investment in broadband technology today that will result in the installation of 700 miles of fiber-optic cable connecting five cities, 20 counties and 56 industrial parks in southern Virginia.

http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=90598

The Regional Backbone (RBI) and Roots of Progress Initiative will create an advanced, open-access telecommunications infrastructure, and offer high-speed Internet accessibility to an estimated 700,000 Virginians and more than 19,000 businesses in the region.

"Bringing broadband technology to rural areas has been at the heart of our strategic plan for economic development since I took office, and I am proud to see this plan going forward," Warner said. "The Rural Backbone Initiative will provide a powerful, long-term economic revitalization initiative to promote economic development, attract technology-based industries and create new jobs."

The project will be funded with $6 million from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission and $6 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

"This project would not be possible if Virginia had followed the path that so many other states followed and diverted our tobacco settlement revenues to other uses," Warner said. "With bipartisan support of the General Assembly, we stuck to our guns and rejected making tobacco settlement funds one more quick fix for Virginia’s budget woes. This money is supposed to be used to strengthen the economies of our tobacco regions, and that is exactly what it is going to be used for."

The RBI will connect the cities of Bedford, Danville, Emporia, Lynchburg and Martinsville, as well as the counties of Amelia, Appomattox, Bedford, Brunswick, Buckingham, Campbell, Charlotte, Cumberland, Dinwiddie, Franklin, Greensville, Halifax, Henry, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Nottoway, Patrick, Pittsylvania, Prince Edward and Sussex.