VATI Award Will Help Create More Than 13,000 New High-Speed Internet Connections in Four Counties
BREAKS, Va. – Local leaders and community stakeholders joined Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and other
state representatives Monday in Dickenson County to celebrate the approval of more than $15.6 million
in Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) grant funding to the Cumberland Plateau Planning
District Commission for far-reaching fiber broadband expansion throughout the district’s four-county
area.
The funding – the largest such award for broadband in the history of the Commonwealth – allows the
CPPDC along with its private broadband partner, Point Broadband, to deploy residential and commercial
fiber broadband service to nearly 13,500 new potential connections in the counties of Buchanan,
Dickenson, Russell and Tazewell. The entirety of the project will impact homes and businesses that are
currently unserved or underserved by high-speed internet.
Monday’s event celebrating the recently-announced award was held at Breaks Interstate Park, not far
from where work has already begun by Point Broadband to expand the fiber broadband network.
“We could not be more impressed by Virginia’s commitment to rural broadband expansion, specifically
here in the coalfields of Southwest Virginia,” CPPDC Executive Director Jim Baldwin said following
Monday’s event. “Our sincere thanks go to Governor Northam and the entire VATI team that helped
make this historic project possible.”
Northam announced the VATI grant award in late January.
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