§31-15C-9 Development of guidelines and application for funding assistance; emergency rule-making authority. - West Virginia Statutes

§31-15C-9. Development of guidelines and application for funding assistance; emergency rule-making authority.
(a) In order to implement and carry out the intent of this article in type 2 and type 3 unserved areas, the council shall promulgate emergency rules pursuant to the provisions of section fifteen, article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code to develop comprehensive, uniform guidelines for use by the council in evaluating any request by a project sponsor for funding assistance to plan, acquire, construct, improve or otherwise develop a broadband deployment project in a type 2 or type 3 unserved area. The guidelines shall include the following factors: (1) The cost-effectiveness of the project; (2) the economic development benefits of the project; (3) the availability of alternative sources of funding that could help finance the project, including, but not limited to, private grants or federal funding and the efforts undertaken to obtain such funding; (4) if the project requires the construction of a network, the applicant's ability to operate and maintain such network; (5) the degree to which the project advances statewide broadband access and other state broadband planning goals; (6) the proposed technologies, bandwidths, upstream data rates and downstream data rates; (7) the estimated date the project would commence and be completed; (8) how the proposed project compares to alternative proposals for the same unserved area with regard to the number of people served, the amount of financial assistance sought, and the long-term viability of the proposed project; and (9) any other consideration the council deems pertinent.

b) Under no circumstances may the council's guidelines allow for the approval of any project for broadband service that does not include a minimum downstream transmission rate of 600 kilobits per second (Kbps) and a minimum downstream-to-upstream ratio of 8.5:1 for services with a downstream rate of up to five megabits per second (Mbps). In those cases where a project's broadband service's downstream rate is five Mbps or greater, the council's guidelines must require a minimum upstream data rate of 588 Kbps and allow information applications and market demands to dictate acceptable downstream-to-upstream data ratios.

c) The council shall create an application form that shall be used by all project sponsors requesting funding assistance from the council to plan, acquire, construct, improve or otherwise develop broadband deployment projects in type 2 or type 3 unserved areas. The application form shall contain all information required by all state agencies that will be required to issue permits and certificates regarding the project. The application shall require the project sponsor to set forth the proposed location of the project; the type(s) of unserved area(s) the project proposes to address, the estimated total cost of the project; the amount of funding assistance required and the specific uses of the funding; other sources of funding available or potentially available for the project; information demonstrating the need for the project; that the proposed funding of the project is the most economically feasible and viable alternative to completing the project; and such other information as the council considers necessary.