By Stephen Smoot
Once upon a time, the vision in Charleston for connecting the entire state to high speed, broadband capable, internet ran through satellites orbiting the Earth.
After hearing from officials in some of West Virginia’s more rugged and more sparsely populated regions, however, the likely future has gotten much more grounded.
The goal lies in providing, according to the State of West Virginia final draft proposal, “speeds of no less than 100 megabits per second download and 20 megabits per second upload; latency no more than 100 milliseconds; and ability to easily scale over time to meet evolving connectivity needs of households and businesses, support the deployment of 5G, successor wireless technologies, and other advanced services.”
Last spring, both the federal government and the State of West Virginia paused the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (or BEAD) process for reevaluation. At the time, West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey and his team seemed to favor Starlink to connect more remote areas. Fiber optic costs tens of thousands per mile and involves lengthy discussions about line placement on poles.
Additionally, use of Starlink would have bypassed many of what some referred to as the “everything bagelism” of the Biden Administration requirements that helped to stall BEAD for years.
While Starlink bypasses those issues, local officials favor a fiber system. Grant County Commission President Kevin Hagerty, backed by fellow Commissioners Scotty Miley and Tyson Riggleman, shared their concerns with the Governor in a letter. Hagerty wrote “it is evident that fiber-to-the-home provides a more sustainable, equitable, and high-performance option for our community.”
Another potential issue lies in the increasing capability of national adversaries, such as Red China, to disrupt Starlink as it positions itself in international conflict zones. Additionally, a small area in Pendleton and Pocahontas counties will still see National Radio Quiet Zone restrictions, although in the past several months, federal officials have pleased locals with their responses to concerns overall.
Also, BEAD changed at the federal level in late spring with processes and policies more streamlined from its original Biden Administration structure. The National Telecommunications Information Administration stated that structure “imposed significant non-statutory burdens and red tape that increased taxpayer costs, limited marketplace competition, and diverted resources away from actual deployment,” which the NTIA called “counterproductive.”
These included diversity, inclusion, and equity requirements, “climate change” related mandates, “burdensome obligations to consult with representatives of various demographic and identity-based interest groups,” and more aspects that stood in the way of deployment nationwide, as NTIA explained in a June notice.
The Governor followed the advice of local elected officials in Grant and elsewhere. West Virginia’s final draft proposal available for BEAD plans for 94 percent fiber deployment and the remainder left for Starlink.
“We are completing the final steps toward securing this critical funding and expanding broadband throughout West Virginia,” shared the Governor in a release. He added that “this historic investment will advance our work to attract new investments in our state, grow jobs, and make West Virginia the best state in the region to own and operate a business. We will maximize the impact of this funding and ensure that broadband connectivity reaches every corner of the state.”
The State of West Virginia has $625 million awarded, supplemented by an additional $37.5 million from the Appalachian Regional Commission and $186 million in matching funds from those receiving the awards. West Virginia has funding from BEAD totaling $1.21 billion. As of now, the plan envisions nine awards granted from the West Virginia Department of Commerce Division of Economic Development.
Applicants had a 10-day period in July called the “Benefit of the Bargain Round.” According to the draft plan text, “applicants could submit Pre-Application materials alongside proposed projects, if not completed previously. Applicants with existing project applications were prompted to revise project costs with updated locations or submit new projects.”
To determine areas of need, “applicants used the Target Areas to create ‘Proposed Projects’ to provide service.” The draft plan also states that “WVDED created these through a clustering method that created approximately homogeneous and contiguous groupings of Target Locations. Most community anchor institutions (CAIs) were grouped into Target Areas with nearby unserved and underserved locations. However, those CAIs that could not be grouped became their own independent Target Areas. Nearby Target Areas were then further grouped into ‘target Regions.’”
All applicants had access to the latest information from the State, as well as technical support and guidance. State officials provided workshops, office hours, and other ways to gain assistance during the process. The State also pledged in the initial BEAD proposal to facilitate coordination between state and local government, streamline permitting, and other means to expedite processes and eventual deployment.
Nine companies received awards in the final draft plan. These included, in no specified order of size, Frontier West Virginia, Space Exploration Technologies Group (Space X), Gigabeam Networks LLC, Armstrong Communications Inc., CityNet LLC, Comcast Cable Telecommunications Management LLC, Micrologic Inc., Digital Connections Inc., and Hardy Telecommunications Inc.
Some have speculated that the company that saw the biggest potential decline in its award might fight back against the West Virginia draft proposal. Broadband Breakfast, an online industry trade publication, quoted Vikash Harlaka of New Street Research, shared that Starlink, who received four percent of the market share and one percent of the funds, would get $6.4 million to serve about 4,200 locations.
Starlink saw Virginia award about half that amount and challenged both that Commonwealth’s plan, as well as that of the State of Louisiana, which also provided a relatively paltry portion.
Harlaka praised West Virginia in particular for including smaller providers, like Hardy Telecommunications, alongside major companies like Frontier and Comcast. Hardy Telecommunications has existed as a non profit telecommunications cooperative since the New Deal. It has expanded its footprint into neighboring counties via broadband expansion projects in recent years.
Governor Morrisey fired the first shot in any potential confrontation, reminding all that “We’ve been having a lot of discussions with the Trump Administration. We’re handling this the right way. We’ve worked very closely with the Trump Administration to get near the front of the line. And, right now, we’re the third fastest here in the country in terms of getting our applications in.”
Also broadband related, the State of West Virginia and its economic planning and development regional councils received word that funding from the United States Department of Commerce’s Digital Equity and Planning and Capacity grant award will cease. The State would have received a little over nine million for “digital skills training, affordable devices, and local digital equity planning.”
State officials had encouraged local “community anchor organizations,” local governments, and others to submit applications.
