American Rescue Plan Fuels Virginia's Universal Broadband Efforts

On July 2, 2018, then-Governor Ralph Northam (D-VA) announced that the Commonwealth of Virginia should achieve functionally universal broadband coverage within 10 years. Reaching that goal would be no easy feat. At the time, Virginia was investing just $4 million a year into its broadband program and 660,000 Virginians did not have access to high-speed internet. This week, Virginia's efforts got a big boost when the U.S. Department of Treasury approved nearly $220 million to support broadband deployment projects in the Commonwealth.