Kentucky

Over Valentine's Day weekend 2025, parts of Appalachia, many still recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Helene just 5 months earlier, were battered by another round of heavy rain and flooding.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved and recommended for award an application from Kentucky, allowing the state to request access to more than $12 million to implement its Digital Equity Plan. Kentucky will use the $12,123,531 in funding to implement key digital equity initiatives, including:  

McKee (KY) is a small town that sits mostly within the Daniel Boone National Forest and is about a one-hour, 20-minute drive from Lexington (KY), the nearest big city.

When the state of Kentucky made plans to award $300 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for broadband deployments, the priority was on getting high-speed service to the neediest areas first. “Our priority with the ARPA funding was reaching areas that had no service,” said Meghan Sandfoss, executive director of Kentucky’s Office of Broadband Development. The state awarded the $300 million in ARPA funding in two rounds.

The state of Kentucky was allotted $1.1 billion to get every home hooked up to high-speed internet.

The town of McKee (KY), population 800, was ahead of the curve. The federal government is currently implementing the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, with the goal of connecting every home to high-speed internet by 2030. In McKee, the nonprofit Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative already did that—a decade ago. PRTC has about 55 employees and is based in Jackson County, where McKee is the county seat. PRTC borrowed $45 million from the federal government—in part from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a Great Recession-era stimulus bill.

Kentucky’s mountains, hills and large rural population have historically made broadband rollout challenging for the state, so in lieu of home internet, some residents depend on local libraries, such as the Spencer County Public Library in Taylorsville. The library has all the things you’d expect to find: children’s and teens’ sections, reading areas, community meeting spaces, as well as more than a dozen computers scattered around. Director Debra Lawson said that wh

Kentucky is working to remove barriers to digital adoption by creating opportunities through technology, affordable high-speed internet, and digital skills development for all people and businesses. The goal is to bridge the digital divide and ensure that each citizen can participate in the modern economy and society. Kentucky's affordability strategy leaned heavily on promoting ACP participation by eligible residents and internet service providers (ISPs). Of course, the ACP expired earlier this year due to a lack of funding.