BVU Lays Groundwork for Community Broadband in Bristol

Newly formed committees are working to identify how broadband Internet technology could improve the quality of business, education and health care in the Bristol area, according to the Bristol Herald.

This effort could have a drastic impact on making the area even more appealing to businesses, help institutions provide more services without raising costs and boost the local economy. It could result in great applications of technology to help improve the quality of life for all Bristol area residents.

"A new committee designed to advance regional broadband use took its initial steps Tuesday.

Established by Bristol Virginia Utilities, the community broadband integration group began laying the groundwork for a review of technology uses and applications in the region.

'This is a good start,” Chairperson Beth Rhinehart said after the hour-long meeting. “We’re gathering information and next time we’ll work to define our mission.'

BVU established the committee earlier this year after being named to the 2009 Intelligent Community Forum’s Smart 7 for its deployment and use of high-speed broadband technology. BVU CEO Wes Rosenbalm said the idea is to identify new ways that broadband Internet technology could improve the quality of commercial, educational, health care and other applications.

'You are already outside the box of what BVU is usually thinking about,' Rosenbalm told the group. 'We’re usually out here trying to sell something. It’s encouraging.'

On Tuesday, the group established three sub-groups to gather information about existing partnerships and technology initiatives and to review the programs of other communities named to the Intelligent Community Forum’s Smart 21 for 2010, which includes Bristol, Va.

The third subgroup is to gather existing needs assessment surveys conducted by area human services agencies and other data pertinent to Bristol and Southwest Virginia.

Lisa Meadows, CEO of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce and a member of the broadband committee, will oversee the needs assessment sub-group."

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