Private Internet service providers are speaking out against a proposal to build a publicly funded fiber network in West Virginia.

State Sen. Chris Walters, a Republican, introduced a bill this week that would deploy more than 2,000 miles of fiber optic cable. The state-owned and operated network would include only middle-mile infrastructure and not the "last mile" fiber connections that extend to people's homes and businesses. This network would be open access, however, so any Internet service provider could gain access to the lines and build last-mile facilities to offer service directly to customers.

That arrangement would make it easier for small Internet service providers to compete against the big ones. Naturally, small ISPs support the project while big ISPs oppose it, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.

“This bill would obligate the state to borrow between $75 million and $100 million, and it wouldn’t guarantee that a single rural customer who doesn’t have broadband service would get it,” West Virginia Cable Television Association Chief Mark Polen told the paper. The cable association includes Suddenlink, Comcast, Shentel, Time Warner Cable, and others. “The state-financed, state-owned, and state-operated fiber network will be in direct competition with the private investments our members have made in West Virginia,” Polen also said.

Frontier Communications, the state's largest Internet provider, also opposes the project. On the other hand, "smaller firms like Citynet and Alpha Technologies support Walters’ proposal to build the 'middle-mile' network that would bring fiber from cities to rural communities," the paper reported.

“Once we build this network, people are going to use it,” Walters argued, adding that wireless ISPs in particular will be interested. “If all of a sudden you have a network that affordably gets you where you want to go, you’re going to use it if it makes financial sense.”

The cable lobby supports a different bill that would instead give up to $1 million a year in tax credits to Internet providers who build in remote areas. That would be $1 million total, not $1 million for each ISP.

Walters is chair of the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is scheduled to consider both bills next week. The committee voted in favor of a previous version of the fiber network bill a year ago, but the proposal stalled after opposition from Frontier.