Dispute over broadband grant erupts in Huntington

A dispute has erupted over a $2.5 million POWER grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission that would deliver high-speed broadband to Huntington, West Virginia. Huntington Mayor Steve Williams says Comcast and corporate telecommunications lobbyists are actively trying to stop the city from receiving the grant funding for its “Thundercloud” project. “Unfortunately, we are learning that Comcast, which only provides a fraction of the level of high-speed broadband that they claim to provide, is actively trying to torpedo this project and our grant application,” Mayor Williams said. “At a critical time when we are trying to improve high-speed broadband and the economic outlook of our community, Comcast is attempting to squash us like a bug.” However, Mark Polen, director of government relations and advocacy with LGCR Government Solutions LLC, a subsidiary of the law firm of Lewis Glasser Casey & Rollins PLLC, in Charleston, who serves as executive director of the West Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association, which represents the state’s major cable broadband providers, including Comcast and others, said it was the ARC that reached out to providers.