Earlier this summer, there was a controversial amendment to the proposed Farm Bill from a respected member of the Virginia congressional delegation. Given the yeoman effort to deploy broadband from NTCA’s members in the state (has Scott County missed any state-driven opportunity? I don’t think so!! Buggs Island Telecom is also working on building out their stimulus broadband build!), our team looked at one another and decided that it was time to tell the real story of what is going on with broadband deployment in the Commonwealth. We decided to team up with the Virginia Telecommunications Association and we’ll be hosting a summit exploring the current status of deployment of broadband in Virginia – we have invited many of our NTCA members, larger providers, cable companies and wireless entities to all come to the table for the discussion. We will also have a number of our community partners in health care, public safety and education participating as they talk about their broadband needs – now and into the future. It will be a fun opportunity to share deployment success stories and the importance of universal service in these deployment efforts with key policymakers in the state. Maybe this is an initiative that could be replicated across the country? It’s a great vehicle for broadband providers to tout the services that they’re offering to their consumers in rural America.
