Tech Redundancy Crucial For Region

Bristol Virginia Utilities wants $3 million to upgrade broadband telecommunications in the region, a project that would assure backup for existing technology industries in Russell County and open the door for future technology growth.
The money would come from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission – the group charged with promoting economic growth in tobacco-dependent communities, using proceeds from the national tobacco settlement.
In other words, BVU aims to turn tobacco settlement money into technology funds for the future.
We urge the full commission, meeting Oct. 29 in Wytheville, to honor its economic development committee’s recommendation and approve the request.
The money will help build a 49-mile expansion of BVU’s existing fiber-optic loop and would include new “points of presence” sites in Marion and at the Glade-Highlands Industrial Park near Glade Spring. The work would provide redundant fiber-optic routes for existing customers, including Northrop Grumman and CGI-AMS in Lebanon in Russell County.
Stacey Bright. BVU executive vice president and chief financial officer, told the Bristol Herald Courier this week that the redundancy would assure existing business customers “of no down time.” And, as she pointed out, “in a data-driven world, without a backup they don’t work.”
Credit BVU – and the initial expansion of its fiber optic network – with helping to bring these technology-based companies to the region. As BVU branched out to reach more commercial clients in rural areas, there was more of a network to market to companies looking to locate here.
These projects are at the crux of the tobacco commission’s mission: funding projects that will provide higher-paying jobs into the future to replace jobs lost as tobacco farming wanes. Formed in 1999, the commission has awarded more than 1,000 grants totaling more than $518 million across the tobacco region of Virginia, and has provided $234 million in indemnification payments to tobacco growers and quota holders.
The $3 million sought to expand the broadband network will support existing high-tech businesses that otherwise would have never come to the region.
The upgrade is needed to provide Northrop Grumman and CGI-AMS with the redundant fiber optic routes necessary for them to smoothly operate. The expansion also will open doors for other technology-based businesses we have yet to envision.
Virginia Delegate Terry Kilgore, R-Scott County, chairs the economic development committee that approved the funding recommendation. He is an advocate for the funding and we urge him to convince the full 31-member commission to approve the request later this month.