bvc_june2017

60 61 VIRGIN ISLANDS NEXT GENERATION NETWORK VIRGIN ISLANDS NEXT GENERATION NETWORK CONNECTING THE VI TO THE WORLD T he U.S. Virgin Islands Next Generation Network (viNGN) is a 100 percent, fiber optic, broadband network that was es- tablished in 2010 as a subsidiary of the Virgin Islands Public Finance Authori- ty with a charter to provide wholesale, broadband, middle-mile service to local, internet service providers (ISPs), who then supply last-mile internet ser- vices to homes, businesses, organizations, institutions, and government offices throughout the four islands of the territory–St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, and Water Island. Its mandate is to promote local economic growth, innovation, and global competitiveness and with speeds up to 10 gigabytes per second, viNGN has made the U.S. Virgin Islands the only fully interconnected jurisdiction of all 50 states and 6 territories. viNGN was primarily funded from a quartet of grants from the federal government’s Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications Information Adminis- tration’s (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities DR. H. MARK MCGIBBON PRESIDENT AND CEO Program (BTOP), whose main purpose is to encourage the implementation and improve- ment of the broadband capacity in the United States and its territories. The specific grants which viNGN received include the follow- ing: the State Broadband Data Development (SBDD) grant for performing mapping activ- ities, as well as planning and evaluating the jurisdiction’s broadband needs, availability, and the quality of what is available; the