OVERVIEW
This map is provided as a service to Virginia applicants for NTIA funding under the BTOP Program, which requires classification of proposed service areas as either “unserved” or “underserved”.  The definitions used in creating this map came directly from the NTIA Notice of Funding Availability for a variety of broadband-related projects, and are shown below for reference.

The map shown depicts an estimate and representation of broadband service availability by census blocks and was produced as a result of collaboration between Virginia Tech’s eCorridors team, the Commonwealth of Virginia Office of Telework Promotion and Broadband Assistance, and the Virginia Information Technology Agency (VITA.)  It is intended as a quick and user-friendly resource for broadband project applicants to use in developing grant applications. This map is not intended to be conclusive or exhaustive and will evolve as more data becomes available.  The data required by the  NTIA program is typically owned by the telecommunications providers, and has not yet been made available for this program; therefore, statistical analyses, modeling, and prediction techniques were used in combination with a number of sources of available data to obtain an approximate estimate for applicants to begin working with immediately.  This initial draft estimation of broadband services areas in Virginia is the result of over 200 cumulative hours by Virginia Tech GIS analysts, statisticians, research faculty and cartographers; however, there is much work yet to be done in order to fully display a complete and comprehensive set of the relevant information regarding broadband in Virginia beyond NTIA’s requirements.  The collaborative team continues to work on achieving greater accuracy and more data to refine the results on an ongoing basis.  Please check back often for updates and new features.

eCorridors has over 10 years of experience researching issues related to broadband deployment, policy, and availability, and stands ready to assist Virginia communities and applicants in obtaining data to meet their needs in order to develop proposals that have a competitive advantage in qualifying for funds under NTIA/ RUS.  If you have specific data needs, ideas, or suggestions, please let us know by emailing ecorridors@vt.edu

DEFINITIONS
Available. Broadband service is “available” to an end user at an address if a broadband
service provider does, or could, within a typical service interval (7 to 10 business days) without an extraordinary commitment of resources, provision two-way data transmission to and from the Internet with advertised speeds of at least 768 kilobits per second (kbps) downstream and at least 200 kbps upstream to the end user at the address.

Broadband. Data transmission technology that provides two-way data transmission to and from the Internet with advertised speeds of at least 768 kilobits per second (kbps) downstream and at least 200 kbps upstream to end users, or providing sufficient capacity in a middle mile project to support the provision of broadband service to end users within the project area.

Broadband Service. The provision of broadband on either a commercial or noncommercial basis.

Underserved Area. An area composed of one or more contiguous census blocks meeting certain criteria that measure the availability of broadband service and the level of advertised broadband speeds.12 Specifically, an area is underserved if at least one of the following factors is met, though the presumption will be that more than one factor is present: i) no more than 50 percent of households in the service area have access to facilities-based terrestrial broadband service at greater than the minimum broadband transmission speed (set forth in the definition of broadband above); ii) no fixed or mobile broadband service provider advertises broadband transmission speeds of at least three megabits per second (“mbps”) downstream in the area; or iii) the rate of broadband subscriber ship for the area is 40 percent of households or less.13 A household has access to broadband service if the household can readily subscribe to that service upon request.