CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The executive director of the West Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association was unsure of the merits of a bill currently in the Senate Government Organizational Committee that would define high-speed internet statewide.
“That bill would prohibit, in its original form, any company company from selling broadband service at 10 megabits or less,” said Mark Polen. “There are a lot of folks who buy at that level of service, even if they would have 150 megabit service available to them.”
The legislation would further allow the state to build a 2,500-mile fiber-optic loop aiming to improve Internet service and drive down prices for both business and residential customers.
Polen feared that the bill would price out certain customers trying to live within their means, especially in more rural areas.
“We would hate to see any inadvertent action on the part of the legislature that would take away the ability of folks to buy a level of service they can actually afford,” he said.
He said that he had priced out many projects where people couldn’t commit to paying for a certain level of service, making it hard for companies to invest in an area where a rate of return wasn’t a guarantee.
“There’s a lot of discussion around this, this session and for the past few years,” Polen said. “I don’t know that the finest minds that we have have come up with a solution to what is, in essence, an economic problem. These areas are very expensive to reach and folks often don’t buy the services that are available.
At last Tuesday’s Broadband Day at the Capitol, the bill was advanced by the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
One of the bill’s sponsors, state Sen. Chris Walters (R-Putnam), thought the bill would help promote competition statewide.