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By Tre Spencer
Mountain State Spotlight

Jim Martin was fed up.

Inside a hearing room, the CEO of Bridgeport-based internet provider CityNet pointed a finger at lawyers for the state’s public utilities.

“They’ve held a gun to our heads,” he said, raising his voice. “If they were policing their poles, there would be no extra costs for us.”

Throughout the hours-long hearing at the West Virginia Public Service Commission last week, other internet providers described mounting project delays, unpredictable costs and frustrations with utility companies.

At the center of it all: how to get internet to every West Virginian when the state receives a once-in-a-lifetime $1.2 billion investment in the coming years.

American Electric Power and FirstEnergy own the physical poles that internet companies need to attach cables to.

But many are decades old, in poor condition or too short for internet lines and must be replaced. The utilities have said they inspect poles about once a decade and have resisted efforts to require more information about their poles.

When the hearing began, lawyers for utility companies and internet providers exchanged tense glances.

PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane surveyed the sea of broadband experts and adjusted her microphone.

“I am just appalled that we are here today, still fighting over this issue,” she said.

A fight over poles and priorities

West Virginia is on the brink of a plan to bring high-speed internet to every home and business. But on the ground, progress is being slowed by a bitter fight over who should pay for the upgrades to utility poles.

FirstEnergy and American Electric Power, which both own utility poles across the state, argue that if an internet company wants to use their poles and they need to be replaced, they should foot the bill.

Internet companies say they’re being hit with unnecessary extra costs to fix errors from the past, arguing it’s the responsibility of the utility companies to ensure their poles are up to safety codes and in good condition.

To connect residents, technicians must install fiber-optic cables that carry higher internet speeds onto poles owned by the power companies. Together, AEP and FirstEnergy own over a million poles.

But these poles were originally built to carry electricity, not modern broadband.

Most utility poles are wooden and can last between 30 and 40 years if properly treated and maintained. Wood decay, bug infestations or weather can damage poles, which then require replacements.

If a pole doesn’t have the height or space for fiber lines, broadband providers must pay to replace it. Each company with equipment on the pole must then send out crews to move their gear, a time-consuming process known as “make-ready” work.

Any pole that needs a new attachment must be brought up to the national electrical safety code. If a pole needs to be replaced, it can cost $4,000 or more.

In 2023, federal officials adopted rules stating that internet providers and pole owners must share the costs of replacing these poles. But so far, West Virginia regulators haven’t adopted similar rules.

In Ohio and Kentucky, state governments have started paying for pole replacements. In 2022, West Virginia lawmakers proposed a similar fund but did not create it.

Pole replacements are the largest roadblock to building broadband, said John Conwell, a Comcast executive. It’s not just in a few cases, he explained.

In major projects, 20 to 30% of poles often need to be replaced, resulting in thousands of poles and prolonging projects for months, he said.

Utilities push back on reforms, citing a focus on customers

There’s no statewide database to keep track of the health, age or safety compliance of utility poles.

In meetings with the companies and regulators before the hearing, the broadband office proposed a pole database and asked for a role in pole disputes.

Internet companies want additional data on each pole’s condition before a project begins, including its capacity, age and location in a universal database.

In March, state regulators said they need more information before deciding whether to require data from utilities about their poles.

Still, both of the utility companies have objected to several proposals, including establishing a pole inspection database, requiring annual reports to regulators, and creating a working group of industry experts.

In the northern half of the state, FirstEnergy subsidiaries MonPower and Potomac Edison inspect their poles every 12 years. AEP subsidiaries Wheeling Power and Appalachian Power inspect their poles once a decade.

FirstEnergy collects some data about the condition of its poles, but because of how infrequently inspections are conducted, this information is likely outdated, said Ronay Tenney, director of engineering services, during the hearing.

Peter Markham, a lawyer for the state’s broadband council, asked her: Could a contractor collect data, or could there be a new form?

“We never said it was impossible to collect it,” she replied. “Our position is that it is not worth it.”

Markham paused, then jumped back in: It’s not worth collecting the data?

Not beyond the data we already have, Tenney replied. “Because they do not serve our electric customers any purpose.”

“So broadband is not a priority?” he asked.

“Wow, you’ve really twisted that around, haven’t you?” she said. “Broadband is absolutely a priority, and for anyone to think that FirstEnergy doesn’t feel that way is wrong.”

“We want broadband just as much as everybody else,” she added.

Many poles have been grandfathered in. It met safety standards decades ago when it was first installed, but when an internet provider wants to attach new equipment, the pole must be brought to modern standards, which can result in a pole replacement, Tenney said.

George Porter, a spokesperson for AEP’s subsidiary, Appalachian Power, said it would be extremely expensive to upgrade each of the company’s half million poles.

“Imposing additional regulatory burdens on pole owners hinders broadband deployment in West Virginia, and in some cases, creates a divide between broadband companies and pole owners,” he said.

And these disputes are already delaying projects funded by other broadband programs.

Kelly Workman, who leads the state’s broadband office, is urging the various companies to cooperate on “the single most important, most significant issue to broadband expansion in our state.”

She said she wasn’t asking utilities to take on extra work, just to share information about the poles they already own and inspect, and to work with the office to fill in the gaps.

“The speed at which we’re going is not sufficient,” she said.

Reach reporter Tre Spencer at trespencer@mountainstatespotlight.org.