As Gov Morrisey defended Trump’s push for satellite internet, he contradicted his own broadband experts

Earlier this year, West Virginia broadband officials had finally prepared a plan to bring high-speed internet to every home and business. The state was on track to serve 110,220 locations with broadband, invest millions to improve cell service and train local broadband technicians, according to a draft final proposal obtained by Mountain State Spotlight. If approved, the proposal would’ve unlocked $1.2 billion in funding from the federal Broadband Equity and Access Deployment program, a Biden-era program to get internet to every household. For decades, West Virginians have dealt with poor and expensive internet service. About 1 in 6 households still don’t have internet. Just weeks before the proposal was due to the federal government, everything came to a halt. In late March, Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced it would be at least three more months before the state would submit its application. West Virginia’s broadband officials put together a plan that was unthinkable to achieve just a few years ago, said Evan Feinman, former BEAD program director at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. “For some reason, they’re going to go do a bunch of extra work and spend a bunch of extra money and slow the program down to get worse connections to people that cost them more every month,” he said.