CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Governor Patrick Morrisey has announced that the state has been granted a 90-day extension to submit a final proposal for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
The BEAD program, which comes from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA), is a partnership between states and the federal government to build infrastructure in an effort to get high-speed internet to more people.
The Trump Administration has plans in place to make changes to the BEAD program. Morrisey visited with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during the week to discuss some of those plans.
According to a release from Morrisey’s office, the state will use this extension to “further focus on how BEAD funding can be most efficiently invested and most effectively leveraged to advance the state’s broader economic development goals.” Those development goals include trying to attract investment from AI hubs, microgrids, and data centers.