CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Positive strides are being made to improve broadband access in West Virginia.
Access increased from 40 percent in 2013 to 70 percent in 2014, according to a report released last month by the Federal Communications Commission.
The 2016 Broadband Progress Report showed access in urban areas improved 64 percent to 90 percent. Access in rural areas doubled from 26 percent to 52 percent. The numbers reflect the minimum speeds of 25 megabits per second download and 3 megabits per second upload.
“Because of the need for telecommunication services, you’re seeing improvements,” said Sam Minardi, executive director of the Utilities Telecommunications and Energy Coalition, on Tuesday. “Now you have other types of connection available. You have the wireless, satellite connections and as technology continues to grow, more and more people will be connected.”
In years past, infrastructure needs included roads, water, electricity and more. While those needs are still prevalent, Minardi said Internet access has become a top priority.
“How can you conduct commerce in your daily life without a connection to the outside world, the World Wide Web? I mean that’s where we are today,” he said.
But industry officials are concerned with a bill (SB 315), before the Senate Government Organization Committee, that would provide for the building of a statewide fiber optic broadband network.
Minardi said UTEC is worried about the state competing with private industries.
“We’ve invested hundreds of millions to billions of dollars into infrastructure in the state and you’d hate to see the state come in and try to be a competitive provider. That’s what’s really concerning,” he said.
Legislation that UTEC is supporting is SB 16. The bill, pending in the Senate Finance Committee, would give tax credits to broadband companies, so they can focus on areas of the state that are unserved.
Because of UTEC’s large investment, Minardi predicted the number of unserved and underserved areas in West Virginia “will diminish greatly” in the coming years. He said the hope is to make serving those areas more affordable through alternative ways, not just through tax credits.
Difficulties with Internet service continue statewide with population bases that are spread out due to West Virginia’s rural nature, Minardi said. “That on it’s own makes it challenging because you don’t have large pockets of customers.”
While UTEC and other Internet providers including Frontier Communications will continue their investments, company officials want lawmakers and the general public to know the latest FCC report doesn’t reflect the growing access in 2015.
“It does not take into account any of the investment, which there was millions of dollars invested in 2015, so I think the next set of numbers (will) show is that we’ll probably have maybe greater than 80 percent of the state connected with high speed Internet access,” Minardi said.
Data for 2015 will not be published by the FCC until next year.