West Virginia Broadband Summit
September 28, 2009Broadband Infrastructure Key for West Virginia "Developing a strong broadband infrastructure is vital to West Virginia's future," Senator Jay Rockefeller said during the Foundation's statewide Summit focused on increasing broadband deployment for rural communities. Expanding broadband access across the entire State can transform education, improve health care and shore up business and employment opportunities. In addition to Rockefeller, the event's keynotes included Lawrence Strickling, Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA) under the US Department of Commerce, and Rey Ramsey, CEO of One Economy Corporation. During the Summit, Sen. Rockefeller announced a project called Metro Fiber Build which will interconnect Huntington's major health care providers (including Marshall University's Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, Cabell Huntington and St. Mary's hospitals) with high-speed broadband so their services will be more accessible to rural residents of southwestern West Virginia. Panels included top telecommunications industry executives and federal and state government officials discussing high-speed wireless and wireline; healthcare and broadband, and collaborative broadband. NTIA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utility Service - the two agencies in charge of the federal stimulus money related to broadband - led a workshop on grant funding.
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