CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Several broadband expansion projects funded by the American Rescue Plan Act are scheduled to close out this month in several areas of West Virginia.
Members of the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council said Thursday finishing the projects is a promise kept.
“Everyone should be very pleased to know that the field reviews are being done and the assuance that what the state has paid for through federal or state tax dollars has been built and the service is there,” council member, state Senator Robbie Morris, R-Randolph, said during Thursday’s council meeting.
Jeffrey Hartley, who is the Broadband Division Lead/Project Manager for the Thrasher Group, which is the council’s engineering partner, reported 36 ARPA broadband expansion projects currently in active construction with seven close to finishing and others to follow soon.
“We have multiple projects that are finishing in the field and ready to move towards closeout,” he said. “There’s a lot of (providers) that focused heavily during the winter months to get the fiber on the pole that are now splicing that fiber.”
Hartley said once that splicing is done the Internet Service Provider (ISP) can light the fiber and make it available to the customer.
“All of these projects are getting lit and are now going to be available for service,” Hartley said. “What we’re hearing from our ISPs is that from July to December they are going to be focused on connections.”
The state received more than $200 million in ARPA grants for broadband expansion.
“It’s exciting,” Hartley said. “A lot of hard work by the ISPs as well as the Office of Broadband. We’re really starting to get to that point of focusing on the connection, focusing on making sure what’s in the field is there and that it’s available to customers.”
Hartley said ISPs are required to have a customer seeking new broadband service on the recently installed fiber lines to be hooked up within 10 days of the request.
The projects are targeting 42,496 addresses. So far, nearly half of that number has been served. Hartley said that number will grow significantly this summer.
BEAD funding
The next round of expansion will come through the BEAD program where the state will receive $546 million to connect more than 73,000 unserved and underserved locations across West Virginia.
Hartley said a lot of the same ISPs who have worked on ARPA projects will get BEAD funding for new projects.
“They are going to start the process all over,” he said. “It seems that everything is trending in a way that ARPA is going to wrap up nicely before the peak of BEAD construction is going to start.”
State Office of Broadband Director Kelly Workman promised the council a detailed update on the BEAD program at its next meeting set for September. She said there is a roundtable discussion scheduled for involved parties next week, July 16.
Workman said broadband expansion can be slow at times but it’s headed in the right direction in West Virginia.
“It’s all just to the goal of making sure that all West Virginians are connected and have the opportunity to utilize broadband service that is on par with the nation,” Workman said.