In 2009, the state of West Virginia was granted $126,323,296 in stimulus funding for the “West Virginia Statewide Broadband Infrastructure Project” to increase broadband access in public facilities including schools, libraries, and hospitals in what the grant defined as “vastly underserved areas.” Of this funding, $24 million was used to purchase 1,064 powerful Internet routers capable of supporting thousands of network users.
In a May 8th editorial, The Charleston Gazette suggested that West Virginia “blew $22,600” on each router, “designed to serve entire university campuses or industrial complexes and are installing them in little public institutions as small as rural libraries with just one computer terminal.” The article also stated that it was later determined “that many West Virginia public facilities already have broadband routers. So 366 of the costly devices now sit in warehouses, not yet installed anywhere.” These unused routers worth $8.27 million in taxpayer funding, sit gathering dust somewhere in a West Virginia warehouse.
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