February 2016

In the face of fierce opposition from Frontier Communications and cable companies, West Virginia state lawmakers have scrapped plans to build a 2,500-mile high-speed Internet network all at once in West Virginia and instead seek to construct the fiber network in segments. State senators backed away from proposed legislation that would have created a $72 million state-funded network designed to bring Internet to rural communities. Lobbyists representing large Internet providers complained that the project would duplicate existing networks.

A completely reworked version of the bill (SB 315) would allow Internet companies to request grant and bond money to build individual fiber segments, provided the firms can show they could sign up a sufficient number of customers and have viable plans to retire their debt. “It's a more intelligent way to do it, instead of putting us on the hook for 2,500 miles without commitments from providers to pay for it,” said state Sen Chris Walters (R-Putnam, WV). “It will really help companies get bonds and grants easier to expand fiber in West Virginia.” The scaled-back plan comes on the heels of a Federal Communication Commission report that ranks West Virginia 48th in the nation when it comes to people having access to high-speed broadband Internet service. More than 544,000 West Virginians — or about 30 percent of the state's population — don't have broadband service.

Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) says he is confident that cable operators will vigorously fight the Federal Communications Commission's set-top proposal, but that, as with the network network neutrality rules, they will fail. Sen Markey joined with Public Knowledge President Gene Kimmelman and over-the-top content creators on a press conference in support of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's proposal to open up set-top content and data to third-party navigation devices.

Sen Markey said the time had come for the FCC to enable millions of Americans to use innovative, and that the time has arrived for FCC to enable millions of Americans to use new, innovative and less costly ways to access content. For too long, he said, cable companies have worked to insure that consumers continue to pay high monthly fees to lease boxes "in perpetuity." He said that is why they will fight the FCC proposal "with everything they've got," including the same arguments they made against network neutrality rules. "But they are not going to win,: he said. "We won on network neutrality and we're going to win again on set-top boxes."