Pocahontas Broadband Council Meeting “Hope Is Not Lost”

During the March 24th Pocahontas County Broadband Council meeting, a discussion was held about the recent announcement out of Senator Manchin’s Office that Frontier Communications has been awarded their bid for exclusive broadband development rights on a large portion of the county by the FCC Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF).  Frontier had bid several years ago at an RDOF auction for those county areas.

Because of Frontier’s poor track record in providing both landline and Internet service here, it was hoped that the FCC would not approve Frontier’s area bids under RDOF, or at least not approve them until after the county’s US Department of Agriculture Reconnect 3 Grant application was approved, which would have taken precedence over the RDOF award.  It is believed broadband service could be built much quicker and more reliably by another Internet Service Provider (ISP) using Reconnect grant funds. The fear is that Frontier may take many years, maybe even up to 10 years, to even begin the installation of their RDOF broadband service.

Mike Holstein and Region 4’s Amy Smarr spoke up with a message that “hope is not lost.”  They said the FCC announcement may have been a bit premature, since the FCC’s long form approval process is not yet complete, and Frontier’s letters of credit and financial obligations are still being reviewed by the FCC. Holstein also said he has heard that there may also be some high-level discussions about USDA broadband funding taking precedence over RDOF awarded areas.

As far as ownership of broadband infrastructure is concerned, Melissa O’Brien of the Roane County Broadband Council said they have worked out an agreement with their ISP on this, but have paused this until they see how the recent passage of House Bill 4001 will affect such an agreement. That bill, which has passed both houses of the West Virginia State Legislature is awaiting the Governor’s signature, would guarantee “open access” to all ISPs for any 100% Federally funded broadband project. It is not believed any of the grants the county is looking at would be considered “100% Federally funded” since they all require some sort of local match.

Regarding the already approved Appalachian Regional Commission’s 2.5-million-dollar Power Grant, which will provide high speed broadband East of Marlinton to Huntersville and up route 28 to Dunmore, Amanda Smarr said the field work for the environmental report should be complete this week then it will be submitted to the state to have the construction funds released.

It was also announced that the county’s application for the NTIA Grant has not been approved at this time, but might possibly still be pending. Logan and Mingo counties have received approvals of their NTIA grant.

Amy Smarr and Mike Holstein also said the 10.8-million-dollar Reconnect 3 grant application has been submitted and is in a 45-day public comment period.

Melissa O’Brien from Roane County said that she has developed a good relationship with the new managers of Frontier Communications who have the authority to make positive changes to the way Frontier operates. She said she has travelled with them to other counties and held meetings where they say they want to change the bad reputation Frontier has acquired. She wants to have them attend a Pocahontas Broadband Council meeting along with some of their engineers to answer questions, however they would want the meeting to be in Executive Session -that’s closed to the public and media- because they will talk about proprietary information. It was pointed out by this reporter that such a closed session would appear to violate the WV Open Meetings Act. Sarah Riley agreed that all parties can work together to find a legal and permissible format for the meeting which will fully inform the public but avoid having Frontier publicly disclose proprietary information. No date has been set as yet for that meeting.

Story By

Tim Walker

Tim is the WVMR News Reporter. Tim is a native of Maryland who started coming to Pocahontas County in the 1970’s as a caver. He bought land on Droop Mountain off Jacox Road in 1976 and built a small house there in the early 80’s. While still working in Maryland, Tim spent much time at his place which is located on the Friars Hole Cave Preserve. Retiring in 2011 as a Lieutenant with the Anne Arundel County Police Department in Maryland, Tim finally took the plunge and moved from Maryland to his real home on Droop Mountain. He began working as the Pocahontas County Reporter for Allegheny Mountain Radio in January of 2015.

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