Broadband’s elusive ‘magic bullet’
It was an entire decade ago — Nov. 5, 2007 — that the Rappahannock County Broadband Initiative Committee issued its final 11-page report to thencounty Administrator John McCarthy, pointing out that while there were a number of broadband providers who marketed their product in Rappahannock “a survey of existing and anticipated technology has brought the . . . committee to the conclusion that no one service or technology provides the ‘magic bullet’ to providing broadband access throughout the county.”
Fast forward to today — or more precisely to 9:30 a.m., Tuesday, March 7 — when residents of Rappahannock County are encouraged to gather at the Washington Fire Hall for a much-anticipated broadband presentation sponsored by the Rappahannock Broadband Committee.
The committee will be hearing from Sandie Terry, vice president of broadband programs from the Center for Innovative Technology. Terry leads efforts to provide localities with strategic broadband plans identifying local assets, providers, gaps in broadband coverage and provides strategies to address the gaps and improve broadband adoption and utilization.
The broadband committee has had only two meetings since its inception, but Rappahannock County Supervisor John Lesinski told this newspaper “we believe working with the CIT is a critical next step that will launch us towards solutions.”
“This will be an informative, fact-gathering event for the committee and the community and all are welcome,” stressed Lesinski, who represents the Hampton district.
According to the CIT website: “CIT Broadband is the only resource in the Commonwealth that offers a ‘holistic’ supply and demand approach to solving the broadband equation. The current mission of CIT’s Broadband Program is to accelerate the socio-economic growth of Virginia’s rural and underserved areas through the application and use of broadband telecommunications.
“This bold mission statement emphasizes
the idea that the true value of broadband telecommunications infrastructure is derived from the applications that traverse its capacity, not the mere existence of the infrastructure.”