CHARLESTON – West Virginia Public Service Chairwoman Charlotte Lane had blunt words for electric utilities, internet services providers and state broadband officials Tuesday during the start of a hearing that will determine rules for expanding fiber broadband on existing power poles.

“The West Virginia Public Service Commission is not going to be the reason that we don't get broadband to this state,” Lane said Tuesday morning at the beginning of the day’s proceedings at the PSC headquarters in downtown Charleston.

“I am just sort of appalled that we are here today still fighting over this issue,” Lane continued. “I hold the parties in this room responsible for the most part for where we are today, and we need to get something done.”

The PSC set Tuesday for an evidentiary hearing in a ca

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