Governor Jim Justice announced West Virginia is allocating more than $20.8 million for six new broadband infrastructure projects.
Justice announced Monday the funding is part of West Virginia’s Major Broadband Project Strategies program, an effort to allocate more than $1 billion in state and federal funds to improve broadband connectivity for 200,000 homes and businesses.
“I could not be more proud – my Billion-Dollar Broadband Strategy is really on the move,” Gov. Justice said. “These projects are going to make a massive difference in the lives of so many West Virginians. They’re going to enable people to have incredible broadband access in areas of our state that have never had it before.
The companies leading the projects will also receive matching funds worth more than $13.2 million:
* Citynet LLC plans to use $2.2 million to expand broadband services to 376 addresses in Monongalia, Preston and Taylor counties. The effort will include installing around 86 miles of fiber infrastructure.
* Comcast Cable Communications will receive $14.7 million for providing services to 1,402 places in Brooke, Hancock, Marshall and Ohio counties. The project involves installing 304 miles of fiber infrastructure.
* DQE Communications LLC will get around $1 million for installing 15 miles of fiber infrastructure to expand broadband services to 650 addresses in Harrison County.
* Shenandoah Cable Television LLC will expand broad services to 457 addresses in Lewis County, which will entail installing 27 miles of fiber infrastructure. The state is providing the company with more than $1.1 million.
* Frontier Communications Corp. will get $1.7 million for two projects; the efforts include installing 113 miles of infrastructure for services to 1,398 addresses in Mason County and installing 83 miles of fiber infrastructure for services to 1,566 addresses in Boone County.
“The magnitude of what we’ve done to expand access to broadband in West Virginia in such a short period of time is really unprecedented,” Gov. Justice said. “And what’s even more exciting is that we’re just getting started. We are going to keep announcing round after round of these projects until we light up every nook and cranny of our state with broadband. West Virginians everywhere should be incredibly excited.”
Factoring in all funding sources combined, a grand total investment of over $61.2 million has been committed to undertake 16 major broadband infrastructure projects throughout West Virginia. These projects will result in over 1,000 miles of new fiber infrastructure, providing high-speed broadband access to over 11,000 new homes and businesses.