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Federal grants to expand Internet service in rural Va.

By JEFF E. SCHAPIRO TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Published: February 09, 2010

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A $21.5 million handout from Washington will pay for expanded broadband Internet service across a southern swatch of rural Virginia.

The White House is issuing grants under the economic-stimulus program to finance improved service in Southside as well as portions of Southwest Virginia and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The awards were announced yesterday by Aneesh Chopra, President Barack Obama's technology chief and a former Virginia secretary of technology; the state's two U.S. senators; and two members of the House of Representatives.

The larger grant -- $16 million to the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative -- will connect 121 public schools in 12 counties and the cities of Danville, Emporia and Martinsville to an existing, 800-mile, high-speed fiber-optic network.

An additional $5.5 million is going to the Virginia Tech Foundation to underwrite service between Blacksburg and the city of Bedford, linking localities in that corridor with Virginia Tech's main campus and its medical school in Roanoke.

Sens. Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner, both Virginia Democrats, said the grants will help create jobs and erase the disparity in Internet service between rural Virginia and the state's fast-growing suburbs.

The awards have a political dimension. They are being steered to regions where Democratic House incumbents are considered vulnerable in this year's elections because of the economic downturn and voter worries about rising federal spending and debt.

The heftier award is going to the 5th District, where more than six Republicans are vying to take on Rep. Tom Perriello, a Democrat who won the nation's closest House race in 2008, edging GOP incumbent Virgil H. Goode Jr.

The remaining dollars could provide a boost for Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th. Republicans have yet to find a challenger for Boucher, whose support for President Barack Obama on cap-and-trade legislation inflamed voters in coal-rich Southwest Virginia.

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or jschapiro@timesdispatch.com.