MACRUC Member Applauds Federal Broadband Coordination
The FCC, NTIA and the Department of Agriculture’s plan to coordinate federal broadband deployment funds (see 2106250056) should increase efficiency and produce the “biggest bang for the buck” in communities with little or no broadband, said NARUC broadband task force…
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member Talina Mathews Tuesday. The state broadband group recommended more coordination (see 2106250048), noted the Kentucky Public Service commissioner in a livestreamed panel at the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners (MACRUC) meeting in Farmington, Pennsylvania. “The haves and have-nots really came to light when we had to go virtual,” with some children forced to sit in McDonald’s parking lots to get Wi-Fi for homework, Mathews said. COVID-19 put an “intense spotlight” on underserved areas, said Virginia State Corporation Commission Judge Judy Jagdmann on a later, partially virtual MACRUC panel. Electric utilities are constructing broadband middle mile facilities in their states after laws passed to ease limits, said Jagdmann and West Virginia PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane. West Virginia’s commission cleared a $61.3 million, 400-mile middle-mile broadband project by Appalachian Power June 16 that could serve 15,000 unserved customers, said utility Vice President-External Affairs Brad Hall. Though an energy users group sought reconsideration Monday of parts of the PSC’s OK in case 21-0032-E-IMM, the energy company hopes to begin 24-month construction by year-end, Hall said. The users group said it challenges “limited questions of cost recovery,” not PSC approval of the plan or proposed project. Lane said she couldn't talk about the pending reconsideration.