Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV
September 5, 2012
Broadband planned for McDowell
By GREG JORDAN
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
WELCH — Within six months, most McDowell County residents should have access to high-speed Internet service that will enhance both their personal lives and the county’s economy, West Virginia’s governor announced Tuesday.
“There are great things that are going to happen in McDowell County to make sure you get the kind of education and the kind of skills you need to be successful in life,” Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin told the students at Mount View High School.
Tomblin informed the audience that the company Shentel out of Edinburg, Va., was laying hundreds of miles of fiber-optic cable that will bring high-speed Internet service to almost every McDowell County home by the end of the year. The effort is part of the Reconnecting McDowell project created to improve the education opportunities and infrastructure available in McDowell County.
“Shentel is very excited to join the effort to make the Reconnect McDowell project a success,” said Earle MacKenzie, executive vice president of Shentel. “Reconnect McDowell is a long -term effort to make educational improvements in McDowell County, the route to a brighter economic future.”
Shentel purchased the Jet Broadband company two years ago and started replacing its cables, MacKenzie said. The company decided not to just repair the former network, but to replace it with 100 percent high-speed fiber optics cable. Work is being done a section at a time in the county, so some homes could have access by the end of September, he added. The main lines could be completed by the end of the year.
MacKenzie said that his company provides service to 12 counties. McDowell County’s system has been the biggest and most complex, and it is the only one that will have 100 percent fiber-optic cable.
Tomblin encouraged McDowell County’s students to take advantage of the new Internet access. He said that when talking with visiting executives like MacKenzie, one question comes up: What will allow the state to be successful?
“And the answer is you,” Tomblin told the students. “You are our future, and I’m pleased to tell you that the future is bright. Thanks to federal funding, every school in McDowell County will be connected to high-speed Internet access by the end of this month. This will open the door to many learning opportunities here at Mount View. As we know, teachers love to give homework. It will be helpful to have the Internet at your fingertips during the evening.”
Superintendent Nelson Spencer of McDowell County Schools said that Frontier was now connecting the county’s schools to high-speed Internet, and expected to be finished by the end of the month.
Shentel is spending $9.5 million of its own funds to install new cable in McDowell County, said Christopher S. Kyle, vice president of Industry Affairs.Ɔ
