Department of Commerce: Broadband
West Virginia’s $126.3 million application with the federal government for stimulus money to support
Broadband Deployment was approved.
The state’s application outlined a plan to immediately deploy broadband infrastructure throughout the state, to ensure that every part of the state will be served. Instead of approaching each school, library, prison or emergency service separately, the state proposes placing one order for an open access network, including 2,400 miles of fiber optic lines and cell towers.
"This is going to allow us to get to every single critical access facility that we identified. It's going to allow us to build every single tower for our emergency services and communications," West Virginia Department of Commerce Cabinet Secretary Kelley Goes said.
Goes says the state could probably never reach some areas with broadband without the stimulus money. "We are getting very deep into our communities with large amounts of broadband. I'm not sure you could do it without this to be perfectly honest," Goes said. "The private sector can't step up to
make this kind of investment. The economics aren't there and we (the state) could not step up
and make this kind of investment."