By Steven Allen Adams, The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON — West Virginia was on the cusp of being one of the first states to begin work on broadband expansion, but updated federal requirements from the Trump administration could make the state have to re-do much of the work already done and give more consideration of satellite internet options.
The West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council received a report during its regular meeting Thursday on updated guidance from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program.
The stated goal of the updated guidance is to modify the BEAD program’s implementation, aiming to accelerate broadband deployment and ensure greater value for taxpayer investment by eliminating perceived “non-statutory burdens and red tape” imposed by the prior administration of former President Joe Biden.
The BEAD Program, established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), allocates more than $42 billion to expand high-speed broadband access across the United States. The NTIA, as the administering agency, states that the previous administration’s policies “failed to put a single shovel in the ground since IIJA’s passage in 2021–leaving many Americans unconnected.”
