“It’s the biggest investment in high-speed internet ever,” President Joe Biden said earlier this week. “For today’s economy to work for everyone, internet access is just as important as electricity, water and other basic services.”
Because of the work of U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., $1.21 billion of that will come to the Mountain State.
“I heard my grandparents talk about rural electrification back in the ‘30s after (President Franklin) Roosevelt got elected and maybe 10% to 15% of West Virginia had electricity because we were so rural,” Manchin said. “With that rural electrification, it changed people’s lives. It really did. The same thing’s going to happen with this. And that’s why we fought so hard.”
It will take a while, but the process can begin July 1. Here, we are a step ahead because of the work done to complete the overhaul of the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband coverage maps.
“The great thing for West Virginia is we required in the legislation the maps be accurate because this is supposed to be directed to unserved and underserved areas,” Capito said. “The money will be distributed in priority to those people. West Virginia is going to be a big winner here because we still have, unfortunately, too many people unserved and underserved.”
There is funding in addition to the $1.21 billion that will mean the Mountain State has more than $2 billion to work with to achieve the goal of making it possible for every household to have access to quality, reliable broadband internet.
Manchin, Capito and state officials who tackled the broadband maps are to be commended for their work on behalf of West Virginians. The challenge now is to complete the projects as quickly as possible — and then capitalize on the improvement.