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About the Program

From the Abstract:

The purpose of this program is to develop a statewide broadband coverage map to provide a comprehensive picture of current infrastructure deployment and availability of broadband service in the State of West Virginia (State). This project will gather data at the address level from service providers, including broadband availability, technology, infrastructure, speed, ARPU and the spectrum used if wireless service. In addition to broadband data collected from providers, this project will identify and collect additional data from private and public sources to meet the project objectives described in the technical appendix of the NOFA. This additional data will include community-anchor institution data layers, such as schools, libraries, universities, colleges, hospitals, emergency and public safety installations, and all public buildings. Most important among these datasets are the continually updated structures and street/roads centerlines datasets created by the State’s Statewide Addressing and Mapping Board (SAMB) containing geospatial information and address attributes for every structure in the State. The SAMB structures layer is key to address accuracy and verification. Data obtained from service providers will be cross-referenced with the SAMB layer for automated address and broadband availability verification. This automated verification followed by on the ground verification inspections and consumer surveys will further ensure the desired accuracy.

The project will provide layers of current infrastructure, indicating transmission speeds, levels and type of service in an electronic format compatible with both ESRI software and the Google Earth Visualization platform compliant with all the requirements of the NOFA for review and use by federal, state and local agencies/institutions and the public. Analysis of these layers will provide the State with an accurate depiction of unserved and underserved areas. State staff will be working with a private contractor to ensure completion of all project tasks within the required datelines and for delivery to NTIA for inclusion in the National Broadband Map.

Confidential information obtained from service providers and the State’s datasets will not be included in publicly accessible versions of the final product. A mandatory Non-Disclosure Agreement will further reinforce data security and confidentiality.

The use of existing and readily available datasets and coordination between multiple agencies, providers and other stakeholders together with work by the State’s contractor ensures the successful completion of the project and expedient data delivery.

Because the data will come from different sources and will change with time, there will be a need for update management and oversight at the State level. The data will be maintained through data stewardship program in which State staff will assume responsibility for the maintenance of the datasets used in this project. Funds made available through the grant will initially be used for this stewardship program. The State will research alternate funding sources to continue the maintenance and updating of the data after all grant funds are spent.