2010-07-20
Due diligence for the Northern Neck Broadband Authority's
second-round ARRA application has been completed. The National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (NTIA) and Broadband Technology Opportunity
Program (BTOP) will be contacting the NNBA with additional requests,
if needed.
2010-06-08
Special meeting for the Northern Neck Broadband Authority
to prepare for the due diligence process that the Northern Neck Broadband
Authority's second-round ARRA application has to undergo next. The due
diligence phase of the application was just announced by National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (NTIA) and Broadband Technology Opportunity
Program (BTOP).
2010-05-05
First official public meeting for the Northern Neck
Broadband Authority---convened to appoint officers and adopt the bylaws.
For the moment, meetings will take place quarterly. Members agreed to
wait until NTIA announces grant awards for Round Two of ARRA funding
(expected in the fall of 2010) before holding the next meeting.
2010-03-26
Icon Broadband Technologies and Consulting Gateway
Corporation submitted, on behalf of the four counties of the Northern
Neck, an application for the second round of ARRA broadband funding
for the construction of a regional fiber network. The application requests
$5,018,863 in funding.
2010-02-19
The Northern Neck PDC received a letter from NTIA
today, stating: "While your application was reviewed in the due
diligence phase, it was not rated highly enough for an award by Program
staff. Specifically, after analyzing the proposal, Program staff concluded
that the applicant did not convincingly demonstrate the ability of the
project to be sustained beyond the funding period. Accordingly, the
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) cannot
further consider your application for an award." A letter also
arrived today from USDA, stating: "RUS [Rural Utilities Service]
completed an initial screening of your application...and determined
that it was not eligible to proceed to the next stage of processing
under BIP [Broadband Initiatives Program]."
2009-10-19
The Northern Neck Broadband Authority has been created,
with five members (the county administrators from Lancaster, Northumberland,
Richmond, and Westmoreland Counties, plus the chairman of the Northern
Neck-Chesapeake Bay Region Partnership). The PDC expects to hear soon
about the status of the region's ARRA application for middle-mile construction
funding.
2009-08-18
The four counties of the Northern Neck have announced
public meetings to discuss the creation of a regional broadband authority
to be called the Northern Neck Broadband Authority. Its role will be
to administer the construction and management of the regional fiber
network expected to be built as funds become available.
Schedule of Meetings:
Lancaster County
Thursday, September 24, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Northumberland County
Thursday, September 10, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Richmond County
Thursday, September 10, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Westmoreland County
Monday, September 14, 2009, 10:00 a.m.
2009-08-14
Icon Broadband Technologies and Consulting Gateway
Corporation submitted, on behalf of the four counties of the Northern
Neck and the six counties of the Middle Peninsula, an ARRA application
to fund the construction of a regional fiber network infrastructure.
Read the Executive Summary of the application here.
Details:
Applicant: Northern Neck Planning
District Commission, Warsaw, VA
Project Title: Northern Neck and
Middle Peninsula Regional Broadband Network
Program: BIP/BTOP
Project Type: Middle Mile
Grant request*: $ 13,988,941
Status: Application Received
Description: The Northern Neck
Planning District Commission regional, middle-mile project consists
of approximately 223 miles of new fiber-optic cable, wireless towers,
and networking equipment designed to enhance broadband services by
partnering with private providers across 10 counties (4 in the Northern
Neck and 6 in the Middle Peninsula). The project will provide broadband
access to more than 20,000 homes and businesses that currently have
limited or no broadband.
*For BIP/BTOP joint applications, grant amount
reflects grant request for BIP.
2009-08-03
Representatives from the four Northern Neck and several
Middle Peninsula counties met to discuss the possibility of submitting
an application for 19 million dollars of stimulus (ARRA) funds for the
construction of "middle mile" fiber infrastructure in the
Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula.
2009-02-04
News Item: Telecommunications workers have begun
to extend the fiber-optic network from Virginia Beach to the Eastern
Shore by installing cables along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. This
is the same network that the Northern Neck plans to connect to in order
to create a fiber-optic ring around the Chesapeake Bay. More details
at the Virginia
Pilot Online.
2008-11-05
Phase II is now under way. It will cost $168,000,
with a local match of 10% from each of the participating counties in
the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula.
According to Icon Broadband Technologies (IBT), the
consultant in charge of this part of the project, "The Phase II
tasks will result in a comprehensive Community Broadband Plan for improving
telecommunications in the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula regions."
The tasks will focus on the following:
- Selecting Last Mile and Main Network Connectivity
Solutions
- Determining extent of Fiber and Network Architecture
with Conceptual Design and Cost Estimates
- Selecting the Organizational Governance and Structure
of the Network
- Creating a Funding Plan
- Creating an Implementation Plan
The Project Manager for Phase II is Keith Hill of
Consulting
Gateways Corporation. He and the Northern Neck Planning District
Commission will be working with the Mid-Atlantic
Broadband Cooperative (MBC) on this part of the project.
Completion of Phase II is expected in April 2009.
2008-02-29
Phase I of the Virginia Rural Broadband Planning
Initiative has been completed. This phase consisted primarily of residential
and business surveys performed by Icon Broadband Technologies (IBT),
which mailed out 9,000 print surveys
to residences in the region and 1,500 to businesses.
The Northern Neck and five Middle Peninsula counties
were part of the assessment, with funds provided by the Virginia Department
of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).
IBT has released the final report for Phase I ("Needs
Assessment and Broadband Education"). As expected, results found
a "clear need of high speed connectivity options" in the region,
the report said. "Residents and businesses have computers and Internet
access, [but] the region lags far behind the nation in high-speed access."
This reality is far more serious if one considers
data from the 2006 World Telecommunications Indicators Database, published
by the International Telecommunications Union, whose numbers reveal
that, from 2002 to 2005, the United States "fell from 11th to 16th
in the world in terms of the percentage of residents with broadband
subscriptions, ranking behind such countries as Japan, Korea, Sweden,
Canada, and Switzerland, just to name a few."
This is the reason why the Commonwealth of Virginia,
through its Rural Broadband Planning Initiative, wants to make broadband
connectivity a reality for all businesses in the state by 2010. And
it plans to get there by investing public funds to connect educational
institutions, hospitals, and healthcare facilities.