The West Virginia Department of Commerce should be commended for landing $130 million in federal stimulus funds to expand high-speed internet access across the state.  I’m sure West Virginia’s application was assisted by Senator Jay Rockefeller, who has been a long-time champion of broadband access, but it takes more than a powerful Senator to land a competitive grant of that magnitude.

Senator Rockefeller described the grant as “a real game-changer in West Virginia,” and I could not agree more.  Broadband access is a critical component of rural economic growth.  In a world where some people can work from almost anywhere, they can’t work from an area that lacks basic broadband access.