KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS) — Broadband advocates in West Virginia’s capital city are looking across the river for inspiration on how to get better internet.
SecureNet Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mullins has been working on a fiber network in South Charleston, and Charleston could be next.
“Fiber to the home is doable,” Mullins said. “It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. It’s a great way for a municipality to bring in low-income housing to the internet market, and it’s also a great revenue generator for the city.”
Mullins said South Charleston’s fiber project is 60% complete. The South Charleston network is designed to connect to a network in Charleston, should it happen.
“You just separate it by neighborhoods, by zones. You just create separate zones, get that zone up and running, and move on to the next zone,” Mullins said.
The initiative to bring SecureNet to Charleston was organized by Charleston Can’t Wait, with a meeting Friday including comments from several Charleston city council candidates pushing for “municipal broadband.”
“Actually, before coming to this event, I had to reset my own internet,” council candidate Frank Annie said. “So this is something I think that hits home for a lot of people.”
Council candidate Corey Zinn said he believes he believes Charleston is “really shooting ourselves in the foot if we don’t bring ourselves up as much as we can in terms of our broadband connectivity.”
SecureNet offers internet, TV and phone service. Mullins said if the company comes to Charleston, it would take about a year for the first customers to get service, and about three years to install fiber in the entire city of Charleston.