CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The bill that would allow for the expansion of broadband in rural West Virginia got new life Wednesday when the Senate Government Organization Committee recalled the bill that it gutted the day before.
The committee took up the bill (HB 3093) again and added back almost everything in the bill that passed the House. The committee also added provisions of a broadband Senate bill that didn’t pass the Senate. The committee did take out a controversial advertising provision that was in the House bill concerning internet speeds.
Frontier Manager of Government and External Affairs Kathy Cosco also asked the committee to remove a part of the legislation that the Federal Communications Commission is expected to review in the future concerning pole attachments.
“There currently is a review process that is about to embark on this very issue,” she said. “That’s is why we as a pole owner and a pole attacher we would like to see this particular issue in this bill stripped”
But the committee left the language in. Senator Greg Boso (R-Nicholas) said the legislature could change it later if it had to.
“We enact legislation that courts frequently have before them and make changes that cause us to have to go back and revisit,” Boso said.
The legislation enables communities to band together to create co-ops that can build out the “last mile” of fiber necessary for connectivity. West Virginia ranks among the bottom of states in terms of high speed Internet. Generation West Virginia estimates that 544,000 West Virginians do not have adequate internet service.
The bill now heads to the full Senate for consideration.