CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Broadband Office is submitting the state’s Five-Year Action Plan for broadband expansion to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The state is meeting the Friday deadline established with the state being chosen for as much as $1.2 billion in federal funding to address unserved areas in the Mountain State.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), five-year plans must include “broadband goals and priorities” that serve “as a comprehensive needs assessment that will inform the state’s Initial Proposal.”
West Virginia leaders have said the money will go to internet service providers who can expand broadband service to unserved areas of the state.
West Virginia Broadband Office Director Kelly Workman told the state Broadband Enhancement Council this week that the plan will begin a process that includes the state’s Initial Proposal Vol. 1. She said that will include a 30-day comment period that will begin by the end of August. She said they hope to submit Vol. 1 to the NTIA by the end of September. Workman said Vol. 2 will go out for public comment in the Sept-Oct timeframe with a submission to NTIA by November.
Workman said West Virginia has an aggressive timeline. She said they want to have the information in to the federal government way before the Dec. 31 deadline.
“Our goal is not to e caught in the rush of states that wait until the end of the year to submit,” Workman said. “We’d rather be a little ahead of that.”
After the information submitted is approved then there’s a 120-day challenge process. That process should be completed in the spring, Workman said.
“At that point we can stand up the grant program,” Workman said. “We are looking at Spring 2024 to be able to execute that. In Summer 2024, we would begin launching the grant program and accept applications in late summer.”
The timeline would put the state in a position to being able to execute 20$ of the $1.2 billion this time next year. Workman said the state is moving the process along as quickly as possible.
“We’re making every effort to get this process rolling, moving as quickly as we can while also be expeditious and careful,” she said.
West Virginia is among the 19 states receiving more than a billion dollars in funding. The high amount is because West Virginia was able to demonstrate, through mapping, its high rate of unserved and underserved locations.
The rollout will also work by using target address maps, Workman said during a late-June appearance on MetroNews “Talkline.”
“Every address location in the state of West Virginia is on a map is it’s blue, it’s served if it’s yellow, it’s unserved. And so when we execute our grant application process, companies in West Virginia or in neighboring states that want to expand into West Virginia will submit proposals to serve those and served target addresses,” she said.
Once submitted Friday, the state’s Five-Year Plan will be posted at broadband.wv.gov.