Spreading Broadband, Drawing High-Tech Firms Top Va. Official’s To-Do List
To extend broadband, Va. may reach out to untested technologies whose creators see the sense in sharing the risk of rollouts, the state’s new technology secretary said. When private providers aren’t delivering, the state should consider “advanced technologies that might be less mature” but whose owners may “take chances in the marketplace to show their capability” to close gaps between high-speed Internet haves and have-nots, said Aneesh Chopra. Now Advisory Board Co. (ABC) managing dir., Chopra, 33, will join the cabinet of Gov.-elect Tim Kaine (D), who takes office tomorrow (Sat.).
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Acknowledging he’s no expert on broadband architecture, Chopra told us companies that aren’t “billion-dollar revenue telecom giants” can help Va. “solve that last mile problem.” Broadband over powerline (BPL) and over mesh networks, satellite and terrestrial dish networks hold promise, he said. “Who knows if they might be the answer?” Chopra said.
Northern Va., near D.C., has drawn much high-tech enterprise, including AOL, AT&T, Microsoft, IBM and Computer Associates. That momentum must continue and spread, Chopra said. “A priority is to ensure we find a way to bring technology jobs across all 4 corners of Virginia -- to Danville and southwest Virginia,” Chopra said. He wants govt. and business teams to recruit top firms and help existing Va. companies grow, the Trenton, N.J., native told us. He cited high-tech growth beyond the Beltway, such as in Wise and Russell counties, where he said industry has “been actively working on the infrastructure necessary to recruit high-tech jobs.”
Virginians must be ready to seize opportunities, he said. “The single biggest lever to attracting jobs to rural Virginia is to address workforce development,” Chopra said. “Companies want to know: ‘Can I employ the talent I need to do the job if we set up shop here versus there?'” he said. The state has a large “window of opportunity” to get out the word, he said. Va. has enjoyed a higher profile as well as job growth thanks to recent moves by Northrop Grumman, he said. A $2 billion state IT deal with Northrop, announced in Nov., will help both, he said.
In his campaign, Kaine stressed transportation as a 2006 theme. Chopra said he will see that Va. does “everything in our power to surface innovative technology- based transportation ideas.” The new administration inherits Gov. Mark Warner’s (D) goal of widening access to health care while cutting costs through the Electronic Health Records Task Force, on which Chopra served. “We need to continue down the path of hopefully encouraging adoption of e-health records across the Commonwealth,” Chopra said.
As Kaine’s key aide on technology, Chopra will work with the state Information Technologies Agency and its Center for Innovative Technology; the Homeland Security Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based entity that advises the Homeland Security Dept.; and the Chesapeake Nanotech Initiative linking Va., Md. and D.C.
Neither technologist nor bureaucrat, the Harvard grad succeeds an official with strong high-tech experience. Eugene Huang, co-founder of Internet firm BuildPoint, earlier served as a policy analyst at the FCC, where he developed pricing models for wireless spectrum auctions. Warner appointed him in Oct. 2004.
But Chopra has solid credentials in using high-tech to curb health costs, which Kaine found ideal. “I'll learn a lot along the way and take advice from people who know a lot more than I do,” Chopra said: “I look at that as an opportunity, not something to be afraid of.”