Written by Alfred Miller of the Courier-Journal
As Kentuckians continue to wait for KentuckyWired, the state’s troubled plan to boost high-speed internet across the Bluegrass, lawmakers are considering an alternative.
On Thursday, the House committee on small business and information technology voted its approval of a “broadband deployment fund” that would supply state money for high-speed internet projects.
“The intent of this bill is to get high-speed internet to unserved and underserved areas,” state Rep. Phillip Pratt (R-Georgetown), House Bill 362’s lead sponsor, told The Courier Journal. “That’s what we want to happen.”
An early version of the bill defines “unserved” as areas lacking wired broadband service of at least 10 Mbps download speeds and 1 Mbps upload speeds, while “underserved” areas are those without 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up — the Federal Communications Commission’s current definition of “broadband.”
The broadband deployment fund would award state money to grant applicants who put up half of the cost of their proposed project, excluding federal or other state grants or loans, according to this version of the bill posted on the state legislature’s website.
KentuckyWired, the state’s long-delayed $1.5 billion plan to string more than 3,000 miles of fiber optic cable in every county, is explicitly barred from receiving money from the fund. The governor’s office is asking for some $93 million for the project over the next two years.
“We figured they’re getting funding enough as it is already,” said Pratt, who also sponsored a bill aimed at preventing KentuckyWired from competing directly with private internet service providers.
(Cross-posted via the Kentucky Press News Service. Read the rest of the article at the Courier-Journal.)
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