Pocahontas ARC Broadband Project Scheduled for Completion By 9-1-2025

At the October 10^th Pocahontas County Broadband Council Meeting, it was announced thar the ARC Power Grant Broadband Project is moving along. The Thompson and Litton Company representatives, Cory Nipper and Brian Tew, stated that the Department of Highways have received the DOH MM109 permit application for the project, and their permit comments have been addressed. This permit, which allows the project to install fiber in DOH rights-of-way, is expected to come through by October 18^th. It was announced that the DOH has suspended their fees for this, so we will not have to pay any up-front fees. The next step after receiving the permit is to put the project out to bid, which should be done by the end of the year. Construction might begin as early as February or March, and the project is on schedule to be completed by September 1^, 2025. This project will extend broadband East and Northeast of Marlinton.

Melissa O’Brien of CityNet reported that the fieldwork for their LEAD Broadband Project will be completed by the end of October, 2025; their RDOF buildout is scheduled for 2026, and they will be submitting their BEAD application with the FCC by October 2024. BEAD is the FCC’s program designed to ensure that every address not served by broadband by any other program, will get broadband.

There was a discussion about the pending sale of Frontier communications to Verizon. Mike Holstine said he is suspicious that this sale is scheduled to take a full 18 months to be completed because that timeline will run into the deadline Frontier has to complete their RDOF projects in the county. This leads many to believe that Frontier, who has not even started its RDOF projects, actually never had any intention of building broadband in the RDOF areas of the county that they bid on and won, but simply wanted to prevent any other Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from providing broadband in those areas, even under the BEAD program. Holstine said the fines Frontier will pay for failing to meet their RDOF commitments are relatively low, so it would be cheaper for them to pay the fine rather then build broadband in those rural areas they had bid on. It is also likely that non-disclosure agreements between Frontier and Verizon will prevent the release of any information about Frontier’s RDOF commitments until the sale is finalized in 18 months.

The Council will ask the WV Broadband Council to try and learn about the status of these and all RDOF area projects.

Mike O’Brien, the Director of Pocahontas County 911 and Emergency Management, shared information about the importance of broadband to the county’s emergency response agencies, especially in this area where cell service and even satellite internet service is limited by the Green Bank Observatory Quiet Zone. He said the lack of broadband here puts timely emergency responses at risk in areas with such limited alternatives as Pocahontas County.