MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Monongalia County is just the beginning for the eighth-largest cable provider in the country, Breezeline. President Frank van der Post said they are building a 500-mile fiber network with the goal of reaching more than 40,000 homes.
“We’ve invested close to $40 million, and that will run up to $50 million to really connect the greater Morgantown area to a state-of-the-art fiber network,” Mr. van der Post said.
The company has completed construction and activated the network in the Brookhaven, Cheat Lake, and Morgantown areas. The system can transmit large amounts of data in settings like remote work, telehealth, video conferencing, and gaming, with speeds up to 10 gigabits available. The Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) technology is reliable and more resilient than other technologies because it is less likely to degrade over time and requires less maintenance.
Next, the service is coming to Star City, Westover, and Granville.
“It is fast, it is secure, it is energy efficient, and most importantly, it is symmetrical,” Mr. van der Post said. “So, symetrical speeds mean both your download and upload speeds are equal.”
In addition to high-speed internet, streaming TV and an in-home network are available. Breezeline also participates in federal and state programs that can lower the monthly service cost for those who qualify.
“It actually gives you a cyber security layer (for the in-home network) built in that really protects the customer and consumer from cyber events,” Mr. van der Post said.
For nearly ten years, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito has supported broadband expansion through the Capito Connect program. But, finding a company willing to come to the state and do the work has been the issue, until now.
“One of the things we had difficulty with in Capito Connect in getting broadband into every home is that we didn’t have a lot of different providers,” Moore Capito said. “Breezeline is a provider that is big across the country but new to the state.”
Breezeline has created about 30 new jobs in the community, which Mr. van der Post said are local people, and another 40 to 50 temporary jobs have been created during construction. Monongalia County is just the beginning for Breezeline. Mr. van der Post said within the next four to five years they plan to grow their network, services, and customers to the south.
“We are very excited to be here,” Mr. van der Post said. “I think it will be a springboard for us to go into the rest of the state with some of the public-private partnerships and the subsidy financing that’s coming available.”