Friday, March 26, 2010
Kelley Goes, Secretary
West Virginia Department of Commerce
Capitol Complex, Bldg. 6, Room 525
Charleston, WV 25305-0311
Dear Secretary Goes:
We are writing to you to express concern over certain statements about the State’s
management of its recently-approved BTOP grant. In particular, it is our understanding
that the State may be establishing policies and procedures that would be anti-competitive,
deny educational facilities access to bandwidth and be contrary to the purposes and intent
of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Last week, you asked us to
present our concerns in writing to you, and indicated that you would communicate our
concerns to the State’s Manager of the MPLS contract with Verizon.
Many carriers have been certified by the West Virginia Public Service
Commission as Eligible Telecommunications Carriers (“ETC”) and some have current ERate approved contracts with K-12 County school districts in West Virginia. Through
this designation, these carriers have successfully been awarded contracts to provide
much-needed transport from the schools’ network aggregation point (whether it is the
Board of Education building or a High School) to the WV Net points of presence in
Morgantown or Charleston. These E-rate contracts include funding for the monthly
recurring charges associated with this transport.
As we understand it, the State has taken the position that it will not permit these
ETCs to order transport circuits to WV Net on behalf of the school districts they
represent under contract through the existing State MPLS contract with Verizon, which is
the base agreement for the State’s BTOP grant. As a result, the public school districts for
which these ETCs provide E-rate services will be unable to interconnect with the State’s
federally-funded network, denying them the benefit of the State’s BTOP grant funds.
These ETCs, as competitive services providers, are restricted from accessing the fiber
that would otherwise be built at no upfront charge if the school district had selected
Verizon as their E-Rate provider. This severely eliminates the ability of these school
districts to utilize hybrid wireless, cable and fiber solutions to economically meet their
broadband needs (hybrid solutions allow rural school districts alternative, economical
broadband solutions).
We ask you to consider revising the State’s position, and if necessary, to amend
the existing MPLS contract with Verizon, so that State-certified ETCs can order transport
to WV Net on behalf of the school districts and other permissible entities they represent
under contract. This would be consistent with the interconnection objectives of the State
of West Virginia, the Recovery Act and Federal Communications Commission principles,

 and would facilitate expeditious, economical and efficient construction, deployment and
operation of broadband services for public schools and others in the State.
We appreciate your consideration of these points and look forward to your
response.

Sincerely,

Howard “Rusty” Irvin, III