PSC order looks to streamline, speed up part of West Virginia broadband rollout

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WV News) — The state Public Service Commission has issued an order aimed at streamlining part of the process of boosting broadband availability in West Virginia.

The order deals with utility poles jointly owned by Monongahela Power/The Potomac Edison Co. and Frontier West Virginia Inc.

Until now, other companies — referred to in the PSC order as third parties — had to get permission from Mon Power/Potomac Edison and Frontier West Virginia. Under a stipulation in the order issued recently, Mon Power will handle the permission process, although Frontier still can, and will be expected to, bill for work that’s required from it during the process to make the third-party broadband operable.

One big winner in this would appear to be Buckhannon-based internet provider Micrologic. It had successfully asked to have intervenor status in the case over its plan to apply for about 7,000 utility pole attachment permits for broadband rollout.

At this point, the PSC’s ruling covers a stipulation, or an agreement reached between Mon Power/Potomac Edison and Frontier.

But the PSC also ordered the parties to “file, in a separate proceeding, either a proposed new joint use agreement or an amended joint use agreement that reflects the ... joint stipulation, within 60 days of the date of this order.”

The PSC had brought the matter to a head in the first place, with Public Service Commission staff filing a show cause petition on May 13, 2022.

It requested “that the Commission initiate a proceeding to require Frontier to show cause why the Commission should not prohibit Frontier from requiring duplicative pole attachment applications, timelines and fees. Staff stated that telecommunications carriers currently are applying for pole attachments as part of the deployment of broadband in West Virginia, under the provisions of the [PSC’s] Rules for the Government of Pole Attachments, 150 C.S.R. 38 (Pole Attachment Rules). Some of the telecommunications carrier are seeking to attach to poles under joint use by [Mon Power/Potomac Edison] and Frontier.”

PSC staff also contended in the May 2022 petition that “the requirement for duplicate application fees and timelines is unreasonable and may cause harmful delays to telecommunications carriers seeking attachment where [Mon Power/Potomac Edision] has granted approval but the applicants are awaiting expiration of the [45-day] response timeline to the application by Frontier. Staff also asserted that after [Mon Power/Potomac Edison] has granted access to telecommunications carriers, there is a likelihood for substantial harm or work stoppage while waiting for the full [45-day] response window associated with the duplicate Frontier application to expire.”

The stipulation, reached June 9 and memorialized in the PSC order filed Wednesday, removes Frontier “from the application and engineering review process and [Frontier] only will be involved in the make-ready process in the communications space.”

“While the commission hoped that the parties would agree to a process for ‘one-stop shopping’ with Mon Power/Potomac Edison as the only pole owner involved in the process, the parties have agreed that Frontier must be responsible for make-ready in the telecommunications space. Under the circumstances, the June 9 joint stipulation is reasonable and in the public interest because it eliminates the duplicative review process and multiple application fees that had been delaying approval of pole attachment applications, resolving the issue raised in the staff petition, and will be approved. The rights of third-party attachers to employ self-help remedies are not restricted by the joint stipulation, and in fact are affirmed.”

En route to reaching the stipulation, the Public Service Commission also heard from Bridgeport-based internet provider Citynet.

During raised concerns that included the amount of time about the timeliness of Mon Power/Potomac Edison’s review and make-ready process for third-party pole attachment. Citynet also questioned the cost of Mon Power/Potomac Edison’s fee, and asked that it be capped at no more than $48 per pole.

Mon Power/Potomac Edison and Frontier, which each own half of each pole in question, replied that they have upkeep costs for each pole. They also asserted they’ve been inundated with requests for pole attachments.

Trying to connect most of West Virginia has proven to be a challenge, due to the sparse population and the topography. But the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program that’s included in the bipartisan infrastructure law has large, small and medium-sized internet providers everywhere, including West Virginia, scrambling to lock down a portion of that funding.

That’s clear from a June statement from U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., in connection with the FCC’s process of finalizing its national broadband coverage maps.

Capito noted that over 86,000 new unserved locations in the Mountain State were added to the FCC coverage map, but she added that more challenges than that were made by the public.

“We had over 120,000 challenges to the original map that we thought were inaccurate and in reality, the FCC recognized that 80,000 of those 120,000 were actually unserved or underserved areas. It means that the dollars that are coming out for unserved or underserved will be going to our states,” Capito said during a weekly Senate Republican Leadership press conference.

Sen. Joe Manchin also is closely monitoring the broadband rollout process, noting that the tens of thousands of new unserved areas added to the broadband coverage map in West Virginia were “exactly why I fought for years to fix the map and included a process so that anyone could challenge its accuracy.”

I will continue to do everything I can to ensure we have the funding we need for every West Virginian to get access to reliable, affordable broadband,” Manchin said.

Capito added: “As these maps move forward and as the dollars move forward, it is our job to make sure that the opportunities are not squandered, that the goal of going to every single business and every single residence is fulfilled. ... We saw a lot during the COVID experience that areas that didn’t have broadband fell further and further behind, whether it was in education, the delivery in health care or the ability to work from home.”