Kentucky Prioritizes Neediest Areas En Route to Statewide Broadband

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. Projects that had locations lacking service at 10/1 Mbps speeds were given priority, and only locations lacking 25/3 Mbps service were eligible. This approach likely addressed some of the costliest locations to serve, which should help Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) dollars go farther. Sandfoss is hopeful that the $1.1 billion from BEAD will enable Kentucky to get broadband to all eligible locations and still have some money left over for non-deployment purposes.