CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WV News) — Officials expect West Virginia to receive around 20% of its share of federal broadband expansion funds next summer, according to the director of the state Office of Broadband.
Kelly Workman, speaking at a press conference Friday featuring Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Alan Davidson, U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information, said the first round of funds could be available “this time next year.”
“And we’ll start taking applications for the 20% BEAD allocation,” Workman said, referring to the Band Equity, Access and Deployment program.
The state will receive over $1.2 billion through the program, which was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
The total funds will be deployed over five years, Workman said.
“At the beginning of next year, after the plans are in place, it will begin to go, and it’s 20% deployment of those dollars in the immediate. That will be the big hit to really jump-start the program,” she said.
“My hope is that ... by the end of next year, going into ’25, you’re really going to see the bulk of the spending,” Workman said.
Allocation of the BEAD program’s overall $42 billion was based on the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Coverage map.
The most recent version of the FCC’s coverage map, released at the beginning of June, showed there are around 271,000 unserved locations in West Virginia.
That was an increase of more than 80,700 locations compared to the initial version of the map released in November.
“It’s amazing that here we are in 2023 in America and there are hundreds of thousands of households in West Virginia and millions across the country that do not have that basic internet access,” Davidson said. “We finally have the resources to do something serious about closing that divide.”
West Virginia will submit its five-year plan for deploying the funds the second week in August, Workman said.
“Our five-year plan is due Aug. 12,” she said. “We always like to be a day early, so our target date to submit our five-year plan is Aug. 11. We’ll have a draft over to the governor’s office to review shortly.”
After submitting the five-year plan, West Virginia must complete and submit an “initial proposal” that includes 20 individual sections, Workman said.
Following the release of the initial 20% of the funds, the state will submit a “final proposal,” she said.
“Once that’s approved, the state will have access to the remain funds,” Workman said. “We can go in several rounds for the grant allocations, and that will occur over the next several years.”
“West Virginia will be receiving $1.2 billion, which is enough money to finally connect every resident of West Virginia,” she said.
Raimondo later clarified she was not being hyperbolic — she expects the program to provide broadband internet access to literally every West Virginia resident.
“Everyone. When we say ‘everyone,’ we mean everyone,” she said.