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Yesterday,
Governor de Jongh, as Chairman of the Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority,
announced another significant leap forward in bringing additional small business opportunities to the Virgin Islands with the Office of Economic Opportunity’s submission of three grant applications totaling over $65.6 million in competitive funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s
(NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).
The total project costs are estimated to be over $99 million.
Listen
to the Governor's Announcement .mp3
(4MB)
In announcing
the grant submission, the Governor said:
“Our aim in submitting these grants is to construct a critical component of our telecommunications infrastructure that will enable other parties to expand their product offers in the territory. Another
goal is to increase our attractiveness in order to achieve economic diversification while also ensuring that our residents have access to the upgraded telecommunications network and the opportunities it will provide. Additionally, this funding would provide Internet users in the Virgin Islands efficient and reliable connectivity to the World Wide Web at speeds not presently available."
The
Governor noted that the essential component of this network is the build-out of the “middle mile” as has been developed by Stratum Broadband, Inc., under the direction of the Office of Economic Opportunity with the involvement of the Virgin Islands Water & Power Authority.
The BTOP submissions consist of three competitive grant applications:
$3.2 million for Public Computer Centers to place internet-enabled computers in libraries, senior citizen and community centers to be used free of charge; $2.6 million for Sustainable Broadband Adoption to focus on training on the use and advantages of broadband capabilities, which will done in conjunction with the University of the Virgin Islands; $59.8 million for the Comprehensive Community Infrastructure to expand the telecommunications infrastructure with the deployment of over 250 miles of fiber cables in underground conduit, submarine and aerial.
Julito Francis, Director of the Office of Economic
Opportunity, said:
“Our ability to design the network and respond to the BTOP grants was only made possible by the roundtable discussions and cooperation we received from private telecom, data and video service providers in the territory and involvement of public institutions over the past
year. Their willingness to share with us critical information and discuss their plans was important to our ability to submit the various
applications."
He added that the new fiber-based network will bring broadband speeds that are more than 100 to 10,000 times faster than what is currently capable today in the
territory:
“These new speeds will add capabilities to improve education within our schools, increase medical services in coordination with the Department of Health’s Health Information Technology (HIT) and Health Information Exchange
(HIE) initiatives and enhance emergency management and public safety with improved camera surveillance and secure communications.”
In a
letter of support for the application sent to Lawrence E.
Strickling, Assistant Secretary for the NTIA, the said "Our need is severe given the current antiquated and highly congested telecommunications infrastructure.” The governor further said that build-out of the new “middle mile” project will give private investors added incentives to increase “last mile” connections to businesses and residents since the high cost of constructing such a network will be offset by the grant funds if the administration is successful in its application bid.
“These private investors will bring economic opportunity to the territory and ensure economic diversification and enable us to capitalize on the University of the Virgin Islands’ Research and Technology Park offerings and our economic development program through new investments and much needed higher paying jobs; typical within broadband services sector.”
Executive Director of the Water and Power Authority, Hugo Hodge, Jr. said,
“WAPA is a strategic partner in the ‘middle mile’ broadband network development and will contribute conduit and pole space as well as dark fibers to the network. WAPA will also benefit from the fiber cable deployment with the ability to expand its smart grid network initiatives.” Local entrepreneurs can also offer a plethora of broadband services since the “middle mile” project will directly connect major bandwidth users such as government offices, hotels, and other businesses, Francis added.
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