The funding will allow providers to run fiber in Boyd, Greenup, Carter, Pike and Lewis counties. More than 25,000 locations are considered to have no service and more than 17,000 are considered unserved.
"High-speed Internet is not a luxury anymore. It's a necessity for work, school, health care and more, and every Kentuckian deserves access," Gov. Andy Beshear said. "During our first round of state funding, we made the largest investment in our history, and today we are breaking our own record with another historic milestone toward our promise to connect every home and business in the commonwealth to affordable, reliable high-speed Internet."
The Governor awarded 56 grants totaling more than $196 million from the Kentucky Broadband Deployment Fund, part of his Better Internet program. Internet service providers that received grant funding also will contribute more than $190 million in matching funds.
In Boyd and Carter counties, Cellular Services, LLC, and Foothills Connect will provide $7,502,742 in matching funds to the state's $11,254,111 for a total project budget of $18,756,853.
In Greenup County, Spectrum Mid-America, LLC, will provide $2,294,780 in matching funds to the state's $3,351,112, for a total project budget of $5,645,892.
In Lewis County, Spectrum will provide $10,657,679 in matching funds to the state's $17,191,102, for a total project budget of $27,848,781.
In Pike County, Inter Mountain Cable, Inc. will provide $1,748,032 in matching funds to the state's $2,622,048, for a total project budget of $4,370,080.
Announced Tuesday, the awards are the result a bipartisan agreement signed into law by Beshear in April 2021 that allocated $300 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to the Kentucky Broadband Deployment Fund for the construction of high-speed Internet infrastructure to connect areas currently without access.
In June 2022, Gov. Beshear announced the first round of awards from the fund, totaling $89.1 million. Combined with matching funds, more than $203 million was committed to ensure access for more than 34,000 families and businesses. In November 2022, he announced applications were open for the second round of Kentucky Broadband Deployment Fund awards.
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