CLOSING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

SOAR, through partnership with the City of Ashland, the City of Catlettsburg, and Boyd County, is exploring the feasibility of community-owned fiber optic broadband infrastructure in Eastern Kentucky.

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The Covid-19 pandemic painfully revealed last-mile connectivity gaps across the region. With a record amount of state and federal funding available, the time to solve this problem is now.

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Local communities must understand the process and what is needed to access this funding and then how to deploy it to unserved and underserved areas.

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Primary goals of this exploratory project include the following:

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• Forming broadband/fiber committees and how to build strong, local coalitions

• Educating local officials and community leaders around broadband grant programs and the requirements for submitting competitive applications

• Preparing examples of network designs, engineering analyses, legal frameworks, and financial modeling for communities considering applying for state or federal grant applications related to last-mile deployment

• How to build strong, local coalitions focused on improving community broadband

 

The desired result is an Eastern Kentucky where functional, reliable, and affordable Internet access is available county-wide.

 

Please take three minutes and complete the Eastern Kentucky Community Broadband Survey.