West Virginia leaders are hoping to soon have dollars flowing for broadband expansion through the federally funded BEAD program, but Senator Shelley Moore Capito isn’t yet content with what’s been put on the table.
The state was one of the first to be approved for the Broadband Equity and Access Development (BEAD) program in 2024 with an allotment of $1.2 billion to be put toward deploying or updating high-speed internet around the state, but that program was pulled back for review by the Trump administration earlier this year.
“The Trump administration wanted to look at if there is a less expensive way to deliver this service to the more rural and unreachable areas and include some satellite,” Capito said Wednesday on 580 Live with Dave Allen.
The new proposal, which is currently out for public comment, only accounts for $625 million in federal funding for West Virginia. Governor Patrick Morrisey said Monday that calling the decrease a cut is inaccurate because several sites identified for broadband in the initial proposal were ineligible for BEAD.
“Following the federal rules, we tried to maximize the numbers that we could do through the BEAD program. We’ve done that,” he said.
According to Morrisey, sites that already had broadband access were removed from the list during the federal review.
That does not do away with all of the concerns that Capito voiced about the approved proposal. She said in meetings with officials from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, they made clear that satellite connection would be far less effective than more expensive fiber internet.
“We basically said, in West Virginia, it is almost impossible to be served adequately by any kind of satellite. There’s latency. You can’t get it—the trees, the hollers, all of those things—and so really we’re trying to make the case that hardline or fiber is the only way to go,” she said.
Morrisey says plans are in place to use funds leftover from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to supplement the money coming into the state through BEAD, and he believes what is saved from the initial proposal could have benefits elsewhere.
“While the initial application was higher than where it is now, the savings that were generated, we think, could be very advantageous for other investments that benefit the West Virginia economy and her people,” he said.
Despite the proposal moving forward, Capito is not done advocating for West Virginia. She wants the state to get what it was promised when the original plan was approved.
“I hope we get our 1.2 billion. I’m going to hold the Trump administration’s feet to the fire that this is what we’ve been promised, this is what we should get,” she said.
Following public comment and final reviews, Capito expects BEAD dollars to hit West Virginia in the coming months.
“They’ve submitted, and this will reach almost every West Virginian. They’ve worked really hard on it, the broadband council has, and Kelly Workman and her group, and so, hopefully, it will be successful. We’ll know; I think they have a 60-day period to review it, and then the money should start flowing before the end of the year,” Capito said.
The West Virginia Department of Commerce, Division of Economic Development, Office of Broadband, will administer West Virginia’s BEAD allocation.