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EDITORIAL: Poor broadband service is costing West Virginia top people [Charleston Daily Mail, W.Va. :: ](Charleston Daily Mail (WV) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 09--Editorial Brad Kalinoski grew up in Huntington. After nearly 10 years of pursuing a career in the medical field, he packed up and followed his heart to Hollywood, where he found success in special visual effects. In 2010, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominated his team at LOOKFX for its work on "The Black Swan." This means his work was on par with the other nominees in this category: "Alice In Wonderland," "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1," "Toy Story 3" and "Inception." Kalinoski also served as compositing director for the final season of "Lost." Kalinoski and his wife also opened a small business in Huntington providing special effects for film and television. But they had to move because while his talents are world class, the broadband service by Comcast was not. "After three years of promises, delegation, begging, and many years of frustration, I relocated my life and company to Wilson, N.C.," he wrote in an email in response to a story on the state's lousy broadband service by the Daily Mail's Marcus Constantino. "I literally picked up my company, sold my house in West Virginia, and left all within a few months after threatening to leave. Wilson here, a city of 55,000 people, built and operates its own high speed fiber connection directly to homes and businesses." Ookla, which runs the popular broadband speed test website Speedtest.net, ranked Huntington 794th out of 800 cities in the United States as residential customers receive only 59 percent of the speed advertised. Martinsburg ranked 770th, Parkersburg 764th, Morgantown 756th and Charleston 750th. On the whole, West Virginia ranked below every state but Idaho. The bad news gets worse. The United States ranks 30th worldwide in average download speed, according to Ookla. Our nation is 43rd in upload speeds. Hong Kong sites are eight times faster. That puts West Virginia way behind the top economies in the world. Add to that the civil justice and business tax burdens and it is little wonder why the state's economy goes begging. Through the 2009 federal stimulation package, taxpayers borrowed and paid big dollars to improve Internet capabilities across the state. Obviously local and state officials need to press Internet providers to get the state up to speed because the state is losing world-class talents like Brad Kalinoski. ___ (c)2014 the Charleston Daily Mail (Charleston, W.Va.) Visit the Charleston Daily Mail (Charleston, W.Va.) at www.dailymail.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |