High-speed Internet service is coming for the first time to some rural areas in West Virginia.

About 2,300 households in Ohio, Brooke, Marshall and Wetzel counties are expected to subscribe to the service after the West Virginia Broadband Deployment Council awarded $2.05 million to companies that plan to build wireless towers.

The companies will also serve the new customers in those rural areas. Besides the four counties, high-speed service will also be provided to Newville in Braxton County.

The Charleston Gazette says the council had nearly $4 million to distribute Wednesday, but the group rejected the bulk of grant applications designed to expand broadband service into rural communities. That's because Frontier Communications plans to provide high-speed Internet in many of those same areas without state subsidies.