Check It Out:

What are your favorite local places for shopping, pampering or entertaining? Vote now in this year's Best Of Holiday Shopping readers' choice poll.

Roanoke Valley leaders planning broadband authority

The proposal is one way for the region to tackle its Internet speed deficiences.

RELATED COVERAGE

Cox says connection upgrade is 6 times faster than before
July 17, 2013

Jacob Demmitt | 381-1661

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Roanoke Valley governments are taking the next step toward creating a unified effort to bring cheaper, faster Internet to the region.

The cities of Roanoke and Salem and the counties of Roanoke and Botetourt announced intentions this week to create the Roanoke Valley Broadband Authority. Their respective government bodies are expected to start adopting resolutions to make it happen on Aug. 19.

If everything gets approved, as is expected, the authority will be the vehicle through which the area addresses its broadband conundrum. It will hire an executive director, raise money and partner with private sector industries. Most importantly, the authority will organize a group of representatives focused on addressing the issue.

The problem, officials say, is that the region is stuck in an Internet doughnut hole. The city is too large to qualify for federal grants to improve broadband infrastructure, but too small to attract the kind of private investment big cities enjoy.

Almost everyone who has looked at the issue has come to the same conclusion: Roanoke is in danger of being left on the side of the information superhighway.

“We know we’re behind,” Roanoke City Manager Chris Morrill said. “But what’s good is we’re all committed. We’re all working together; the business community is on board. That’s one thing I’ve found in this community: When we’re ready to make something happen, we can move very quickly.”

Specific projects haven’t been identified yet, so it’s unclear what the Internet improvements will look like for residents of the Roanoke Valley. It may mean increased speeds in homes, or possibly just in key sites like hospitals and schools. Private companies may shoulder the costs, or local governments may consider it a public good and pitch in.

Officials say that before they can answer these questions, the first step is to create the authority.

“It really is, at this point, an exercise in learning and figuring out what’s going to work in the Roanoke Valley,” Salem City Manager Kevin Boggess said. “At some point, there has got to be some investment in infrastructure on this. But I don’t know who’s going to pay for that or when it’s going to be done. I don’t think anybody does at this point.”

The effort began in 2011 when business and political leaders were envious of plans to lay about 300 miles of federally subsidized fiber-optic cable in Southwest Virginia’s rural areas.

The cables are made of transparent materials that pass signals with lasers at virtually the speed of light. It’s open-access fiber, meaning multiple companies are free to use the cables at once. Experts say this creates competition and drives down prices.

The end result was the potential to deliver unprecedented Internet speeds at low costs. It was happening all around Roanoke, but not inside the region.

This drove a group of public and private leaders to come together and commission a study to see how they could take advantage of the new infrastructure that had landed in their back yard.

The results were released in a 2012 report, “Moving Forward at the Speed of Light.”

It concluded the region’s Internet capabilities were not keeping pace with its current, much less future, needs. The connection residents and businesses did have was often too expensive.

The first step to solving the problem, the report recommended, was to use the Virginia Wireless Service Authorities Act to establish a broadband authority.

The report’s findings shook things up and got several jurisdictions moving. The authors of the study even met with the Roanoke City Council to make sure everyone understands what it all means.

It appears these localities are serious about addressing the problem. The city of Roanoke has already set aside $1 million from both of its next two-year budgets to be used for the broadband initiative.

“We want not to just catch up, but how do we try to leap ahead?” Morrill said. “That’s really where we want to focus. But until we have this structure in place and we have somebody dedicated to working with us on this, I can’t say exactly what it’s going to be.”

loading
comments