West Virginia is taking steps to harness the $1.2 billion that’s coming available in federal broadband expansion investment.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., will be accompanied in West Virginia on Friday by Alan Davidson, the assistant secretary of Commerce for communications and information. He’s the guy who leads the federal office over the rollout of the big broadband expansion.
“We’re going to be talking about rolling out and making sure that the last unserved and underserved house is served and the digital divide is closed,” Capito said during a Thursday briefing with reporters.
They’ll be meeting with representatives of the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council, which is laying the groundwork to ensure the money is used effectively.
The money is coming through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress and signed by President Biden in 2021. Capito and Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., voted for the bill. Congressman Alex Mooney, now running for Senate, and Congresswoman Carol Miller voted against it.
Now West Virginia has to prepare.
During a Thursday morning meeting, the broadband enhancement council demonstrated an online dashboard meant to help West Virginia residents visualize the progress of high-speed internet expansion. Officials with the council also discussed the first steps in a long process of making sure the money is used efficiently and purposefully.
“So that everyone understands, we don’t have a check for $1.2 billion in our hands today,” said Kelly Workman, director of the West Virginia Office of Broadband. “But everything as far as our schedule, everything is looking great. The plan is coming together very nicely.”
Robbie Morris, chairman of the state broadband council, underscored that point.
“We do not have $1.2 billion sitting in the coffers of the state of West Virginia ready to go out for broadband development at this moment. That’s what we’re eligible for,” he said.
“Now we have to submit the plans and show that we we have a solid plan in which to implement and spend those spend those dollars in which to roll out broadband. So there’s still an incredible amount of work that needs to be done.”
West Virginia’s share of expansion money through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program was announced late last month. West Virginia is among the 19 states receiving more than a billion dollars in funding. Texas received the most with a $3.3 billion allocation, followed by California with $1.8 billion.
The relative amount for West Virginia is so high because the state was able to demonstrate through very focused mapping that highlighted unserved and underserved locations.
State officials have said about 300,000 locations in West Virginia will receive service over the next few years, and a realistic goal is to reach every community and household. West Virginia is also using other major funding sources like the American Rescue Plan Act to extend high-speed internet to rural locations.
To show state residents how the money is being used, the percentage of homes reached and progress on a map, officials have been developing an online dashboard that hasn’t yet publicly debuted. The broadband council took a look at the dashboard on Thursday.
“It will be a public-facing map that will enable West Virginians to look at the state or the county that they live in. They’ll also be able to look at the projects we’ve funded,” Workman said.
“We’ll develop some high-level sequencing of where those projects are in the build-out process. So some of those might say ‘in design stage;’ once they move to construction they’ll say ‘in construction.’
A bunch of steps are still ahead for securing funding from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program. The next big step is submitting a five-year action plan, which is due August 12. Following that is an initial proposal, to be broken into two volumes.
The broadband council also plans an upcoming, two-day summit about West Virginia’s high-speed internet progress starting July 25 at Embassy Suites in Charleston.
“We’re really excited about this,” Workman said. “So we hope that it’ll be a great convening of the industry and state, local federal partners, with the goal of being ready to execute what lies ahead in terms of speed and digital equity, and completion of our ARPA projects.”