Mike Holstine Pocahontas Broadband Status Interview Part 2

In part one of our interview with Mike Holstine, of the WV State Broadband Enhancement Council, we talked about the status of the Pocahontas County Broadband ARC Project, as well as other broadband activities here by both CityNet and Frontier.  Now, in this second part of the interview, Mike talks about another big broadband project we are applying for in the county, the BEAD Program, which is designed to ensure that no addresses will be left out of an opportunity to get broadband service. He also summarizes where Pocahontas County stands in the county with broadband installation.

Mike, how about the BEAD Program?

“Oh yes, Tim, that’s a great question,” Holstine answered. “A lot of people may have been following this program called BEAD. In the first year of the previous administration, there was a lot of money provided to broadband for rural America.  And, I hate to say it, but nothing happened to it until the new administration took over. The money had been committed (but) not a single person had been hooked up to it. And then, the new administration decided they needed to take a look at it to make sure money wasn’t being wasted. So, for whatever reason there’s still been a delay, although it looks like that hill has been breached. West Virginia has their application in -we are one of the few states that does- a lot of states didn’t meet the deadline, so West Virginia and the Office of Broadband has done a yeoman’s job of getting all this process and red tape through. And, the proposals in West Virginia are going to spend close to six-hundred and fifty million dollars ($650,000,000) solely on Broadband. It is going to cover over seventy-four thousand (74,000) households, which is fantastic news for unserved and underserved residents. And, Citynet, who luckily has gotten almost all of Pocahontas County with the BEAD funding that remains, to serve as much of the rest of the county as we can get. And throughout the state, they are one of the largest ISPs to obtain BEAD funding. Based on their part of the application, and their commitment they are going to receive about two-hundred and thirty million dollars ($230,000,000.) and they are going to serve up to thirty thousand (30,000) locations throughout the state, but, as I said, most of Pocahontas County is gonna be with them too. So, we are very excited that we do have a choice now -the competition is coming- and that we are going to have an ISP that hopeful is gonna be really conducive to providing the service that we really want and need. The thing I like about the Citynet group is when I call them, I can talk directly to their CEO. I can get the answers. All of their customer support is in this state. Not just in this country, but in this state. They are in West Virginia, so they know us, and I think they are going to try and take care of us.”

Anything else?

“Well, I don’t know Tim, it’s been such a long, long road that I really hope that we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel,” Holstine responded. “People should hand in there, it’s coming. I know Frontier is gonna be trying to sign-up people as fast as they can. The ARC Grant is ready to go to construction, and I think people are going to have a choice, finally.”

Thank you

“Thank you, Tim.”