Fiber for Breakfast Week 6: Virginia’s Long Road to Universal Broadband

Fiber for Breakfast Week 6: Virginia’s Long Road to Universal Broadband 

When Virginia first invested $1 million into broadband in 2017, it wasn’t leading the country. It was testing what a state-led model could look like. This week on Fiber for Breakfast, Dr. Tamarah Holmes, Director of the Office of Broadband at Virginia’s Department of Housing and Community Development, joined Gary Bolton to talk about how that experiment scaled into one of the country’s most aggressive broadband buildouts – and what it actually takes to wire a Commonwealth.  

Today, Virginia has secured $545 million in BEAD funding and is overseeing nearly $1.5 billion in total federal broadband investment. But the story isn’t just about dollars. It’s about execution.  

Through the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI), Holmes helped grow a modest state program into a $750 million deployment engine. The jump from $19 million to $750 million in just two years stress-tested every part of the ecosystem. 

“We broke every possible system it takes to get broadband into folks’ homes,” she said – from pole attachments and railroad crossings to utility locates and permitting bottlenecks. 

Those challenges forced coordination. Relationships with the Department of Transportation strengthened. Utility partners aligned. Railroad negotiations improved. Virginia learned how to build at scale — and how to manage the friction that comes with it.  

By the end of 2025, roughly 200,000 locations connected through earlier awards were complete, bringing the state to nearly 90% broadband coverage. Most remaining locations are either under construction or moving into BEAD contracting.  

While Virginia remains technology neutral, more than 90% of past VATI investments have been fiber. Under BEAD, roughly 80% of locations will receive fiber, with smaller percentages served by fixed wireless, cable, or satellite in the most remote terrain.  

For Holmes, success isn’t just measured in coverage maps. “I’m more of a qualitative person,” she said. The real impact shows up in families and communities whose daily lives change once broadband arrives.  

With universal connectivity targeted for 2029, Virginia’s experience underscores a lesson many states are now learning: large-scale deployment is complex, but disciplined coordination, and a strong fiber backbone, creates lasting infrastructure.  

Click here to watch the full interview.