MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monongalia County residents in the southern part of the county will now have the opportunity to consider multiple broadband options to provide service at their home.
Monongalia County Commissioner Sean Sikora announced during the closing minutes of their regular meeting on Wednesday that Frontier officially completed their broadband infrastructure project to serve residents living around the Halleck Road, Gladestown Road, and Grafton Road areas. This completes another portion of the countywide broadband expansion efforts that have been ongoing since early 2020, with plans to support additional providers to offer services in areas of competition to bring overall prices down for internet utilities.
“Frontier has notified us that they are done with the broadband expansion project that we did with them,” said Sikora. “They were out in the Hallock Road area, Glade’s Down Road area, Grafton Road area and so far they already have 70 households that have signed up.”
According to Sikora, the connection of 70 Monongalia County families to the Frontier broadband service follows the over $1.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds that were awarded to Comcast back in late 2024 to serve Cheat Lake area residents. Those projects also were separate efforts to add broadband infrastructure to the western end of the county using ARPA funds to provide broadband service to areas that were considered internet barren. This is intended to not only address infrastructure shortcomings during the COVID-19 pandemic but also to help lead to lower prices in part due to competition in a market that was dominated by larger providers, with Comcast being the most predominant example.
“We’re seeing a lot of those pressures that we expected once we started getting more of these areas connected,” said Sikora. “You create a few trunk lines, create a few inroads for an area to be connected, and eventually start creating competition.”
To continue the expansion, Sikora also added that Frontier plans to also expand services into the Suncrest area in the coming months as part of their effort to offer a second option for broadband for residents in that part of the county. With Comcast the most prominent provider in that part of the county, there’s an expectation that costs for residents in that area will see price decreases in response to the additional service becoming available.
“Frontier is going to be doing some expansion in the Suncrest area, and that’s predominantly a Comcast area,” said Sikora. “So that in itself will give our citizens choice and start driving some of these costs down.”
The hope for the Monongalia County Commission is that as more broadband service providers begin to lay the foundation for internet service in barren parts of the county, that service as a whole will become affordable countywide. While costs have reached as high as $150 per month depending on the service package for internet for homes and businesses, Sikora stated that residents have reported changes in the pricing of Comcast broadband in order to match rates similarly seen with Frontier and Breezeline. Both of which have expanded their services since the county broadband efforts began over half a decade ago. The hope for the commission is that residents will be able to see the benefits of those efforts in their pocketbooks.
“As we go along and we see these ISPs coming into areas that already are connected, now all of a sudden you’re offering choice,” said Sikora. “And that itself is going to drive costs down.”