Former Gov. Warner leads Virginia high speed internet panel

Virginians have a new old friend working to bring high speed internet access to every resident. Former Gov. Mark Warner--who was a telecom executive before entering politics--is leading a panel for current Gov. Tim Kaine to come up with a plan for universal high speed internet in Virginia.

The group includes representatives from the public and private sector, and it will meet throughout the year all over the commonwealth. Then the panel will submit a report to Gov. Kaine in July 2008.

Warner spoke recently about his vision for the panel:

"We've got a good start on the infrastructure of broadband in our rural communities, but there's still a lot more to be done," Warner said. Specifically, that includes connecting the "last mile" of the broadband network from the fiber backbone to the small businesses that need Internet access.

His first priority is to get to service providers to hand over data about the current extent of their coverage, so officials can get a better picture which residents have high speed internet connections and which regions have been left behind.

Southern Virginia is currently served by the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative (MBC), a non-profit public-private partnership that has laid hundreds of miles of high speed internet lines connecting four cities, 20 counties, and 56 industrial parks.

Local efforts like the MBC have made real progress where a lack of a national policy has left many Americans behind. As part of his panel, Warner will look to boost these community-based efforts.

Bashore Joins Statewide Broadband Roundtable (Leesburg Today)

Ex-governor leads broadband effort (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative