Some 162,000 Virginia homes and businesses still lack broadband access, and although extending it to their hard-to-reach locations will cost more, they are the priority for the state’s plans to deploy federal broadband funding. Virginia’s new five-year plan to use that money calls for having strategies in place by the end of next year for shovel-ready projects to connect those 162,000 homes and businesses. Those projects are to be completed by 2027 or 2028, the plan says. The state expects to use more than $958.7 million of its $1.48 billion allocation under the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s broadband program. The state’s plan also calls for efforts to reduce the cost of broadband services in areas where the expense of connecting discourages use. Gov. Glenn Youngkin said the Commonwealth is the first in the nation to release these plans and to strategize the effective utilisation of these funds, ensuring that all Virginians are connected through broadband.