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W.Va. moves toward ‘closeout’ on major broadband projects as BEAD program kicks off

CHARLESTON – Internet service providers are on track to close out major broadband projects in West Virginia through the Biden-era American Rescue Plan Act just in time to begin work on the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program.

Members of the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council received updates on federally funded broadband expansions projects Thursday during its regular virtual meeting.

Kelly Workman, director of the state Office of Broadband, told council members Thursday that officials were working with ISPs on navigating the complicated federal environmental permitting processes in order to begin projects through the BEAD program.

The Office of Broadband successfully passed a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) deep-dive assessment conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on June 24, receiving a passing grade for its proposed processes.

A BEAD roundtable is scheduled for Thursday, July 16, to coordinate broadband permitting with eight agencies, including the Division of Highways, State Historic Preservation Office, the Department of Environmental Protection, the Division of Natural Resources, the U.S. Forestry Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Starting Monday, July 20, the Office of Broadband will provide one-on-one assistance to ISPs to navigate these complex federal environmental permitting requirements.

“We’re trying to provide as much information as possible to get these projects started in the right direction,” Workman said. “The NEPA EHP (Environmental and Historic Preservation) process is going to be one of the first things that we really have to get through in order to get these projects to construction.”

The NTIA approved the use last November of $546 million of the total $1.2 billion BEAD grant to connect more than 73,000 residents to last-mile broadband. Established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in 2021 and signed into law by then-President Joe Biden, the BEAD program allocated more than $42 billion to expand high-speed broadband access across the United States.

The majority of the $546 million will go to Bridgeport-based Citynet, Frontier Communications (now Verizon) and Comcast. The remainder of the funding is divided between smaller regional internet service providers: Micrologic, GigaBeam, Prodigi Internet, Armstrong and Hardy Telecommunications. The smallest award is for Elon Musk’s Starlink, a low-earth orbit satellite internet service provider.

The NTIA is expected to release guidance on non-deployment-eligible uses for remaining BEAD grant funding (e.g., digital equity, workforce development) at the end of the summer. Once released, the state will have approximately 90 to 120 days to develop a detailed proposal for utilizing these funds.

Meanwhile, work on broadband expansion projects funded through the COVID-era American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) continues. Jeffrey Hartley, a project manager with the Thrasher Group providing services to the Office of Broadband, explained that out of 45 total broadband projects funded through ARPA, two projects are complete and another seven projects are nearing close out within the next 30 days, with 14,382 out of 42,496 targeted addresses served to date.

Hartley said most ISPs spent the winter months hanging broadband fiber and are now focused on splicing. The objective for the next six-month period is “lighting” the fiber and facilitating customer connections. Officials with the Office of Broadband and the Thrasher Group have a field review process to officially close out a project, including in-person inspections.

“There will be no question when Kelly (Workman) puts her final signature on a document … that it physically is done,” Hartley said. “Every address has service within the 10-business-day initiative … We are validating in the field (that) the fiber is there and all the testing is passed.”

More than $205 million in ARPA grant dollars are funding these 45 projects. Internet service providers have until Dec. 31, 2026, to finish the projects before any remaining funding is clawed back by the U.S. Treasury Department. Hartley said the remaining ARPA projects are on track to close out before the December deadline.

“A lot to happen in the month of July, but we’re really excited to get a lot of this moved to the closeout stage so these ISPs can start focusing on providing service, but also the ones that do have BEAD applications and BEAD grant awards, they’re going to start this whole cycle all over again … It seems that everything’s trending in a way where ARPA is going to finish and wrap up very nicely before the peak of BEAD construction will start.”

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