West Virginia Opens BEAD Grant Application Window

WASHINGTON, August 26, 2024 – The state of West Virginia began Monday to accept applications to receive broadband deployment grants under the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program.

The state was allocated $1.2 billion to expand broadband infrastructure as part of the $42.5 billion BEAD program. It’s one of the first states to start soliciting grant applications under the Infrastructure Act program, trailing just Montana and Louisiana, which got started last week.

Grant applications will be submitted to the West Virginia Department of Economic Development’s ZoomGrants portal.

“We look forward to continuing our work with each company that has stepped up to participate in the BEAD program,” Kelly Workman, Director of the West Virginia Office of Broadband, said in a statement. “The participation of each broadband provider is essential to our ability to expand broadband to all West Virginians, especially those in the most rural areas of our state.”

 Under BEAD rules, the state had to accept and process challenges to government broadband coverage data before fielding grant applications. West Virginia received more than 80,000 such challenges earlier this year.

After processing those challenges, the state saw a reduction in eligible homes and businesses – those with access to speeds lower than 100 megabits per second download and 20 Mbps upload – down to about 114,000 from an initial estimate of 170,000. The state counted a total of about 900,000 “broadband serviceable locations” within its borders.

The application portal will be open for 60 days, closing on October 25.

West Virginia’s broadband office will have to submit its final list of grant awards to the Commerce Department, which handles the BEAD program, for approval before projects will get underway. Most states are still processing challenge data or waiting on federal approval of proposals or location lists, leading analysts to predict BEAD grants will start flowing in earnest in 2026.