Rural broadband backbone getting a boost

Rural homes that connect to the Internet by dial-up a few miles out of Lynchburg might try to download a movie to their computer, but it would take about 28 hours — if the connection remains unbroken.

Money provided by the federal stimulus program could let that download happen in 10 minutes.

The stimulus funds also could let a doctor doing surgery in a small Southside Virginia hospital receive advice from a surgeon in the Mayo Clinic who could view a clear image in Minnesota as incisions are made.

Fast downloads and better Internet medicine, along with better browsing, may reach Southside and Southwest Virginia within five or six years because of the stimulus Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

Two stimulus grants, one for $16 million and another for $5.5 million, are bringing fiber-optic broadband cable to the door of schools in eight Southside Virginia counties, and to western Bedford County and its neighbors as far west as Giles County.

Southside Virginia’s broadband “backbone,” as it is sometimes called, already provides fast Internet service in a 700-mile ring that includes the cities of Bedford, Danville and Petersburg. It loosely follows three major highways: U.S. 29, U.S. 460 and U.S. 58.

The “backbone” has been installed with funding provided by the Tobacco Commission, and built by a nonprofit called Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative.

Mid-Atlantic received the stimulus grants totaling about $21.5 million and has begun installing the fiber optic cable that reaches out to local schools.

The Tobacco Commission provided about $4 million in matching funds for the Southside project, and the Virginia Tech Foundation provided about $1.4 million to match the Bedford-to-Blacksburg loop.

That western loop also will make faster Internet possible in Giles, Craig and Botetourt counties, in addition to rural parts of Montgomery County outside the “electronic village” area of Blacksburg.

Mid-Atlantic, based in South Boston, told the government that it hired three people between April and June to oversee the grant-funded projects. Those jobs don’t include any hiring by contractors who were, or will be, hired to install the cable along roadways, either underground or on existing utility poles.

Once the Southside school systems buy into the cable, students could possibly talk to other students in Africa. Or, they could study specialized subjects, such as engineering or computer coding, that their local schools don’t teach.

In one sense, extending the reach of broadband down the side roads of Campbell, Bedford and Appomattox counties sounds about as exciting as installing a water line.

But on another level, broadband is the door to the future.

“What that really does for us in this region is pretty dramatic,” said Bryan David, executive director of the Region 2000 Economic Development Council.

In Appomattox, Campbell and Bedford counties, “all of the schools will have fiber optic cabling available,” David said.

None of the school systems is required to connect to the broadband cable, and they haven’t included plans for it in their budgets yet.

But the cable can be compared to an interstate version of the information highway, reaching to the schools’ property and offering connections, not just for the schools, but also to any business or home within range of communications towers that can be built near the schools, David said.

“Fiber optic is future-proofed,” David added. “As broadband technology continually is replaced by faster and beefier systems, so to speak, fiber optic will accommodate that growth and technology.”

The communications towers are a key link in the broadband system.

From those towers, local Internet service providers who are members of the Mid-Atlantic cooperative can sell the Internet connections and other telecommunications services to local homes and businesses.

Microsoft Corp. said in August it would invest nearly $500 million in a data center in Mecklenburg County, a project that can exist only where a broadband “backbone” is available.

Economic-development people who are trying to replace Southside Virginia’s lost textile, tobacco and furniture factories with modern jobs hope for more announcements like Microsoft’s, which includes about 50 jobs likely to pay above $50,000.