Kentucky Strives to Increase Rural Broadband Access

Advocates for deregulating Kentucky's broadband industry argued doing so would result in increased rural access to high speed Internet services. They'll have the chance to prove it with Gov. Ernie Fletcher's signature this week on deregulation legislation, HB 627.

The governor has promoted the rural broadband initiative since taking office in December. According to the Progressive Policy Institute, Kentucky currently ranks 41st in the nation in broadband deployment.

Improving broadband access also has been a priority of connectKentucky, a three-year-old public-private policy partnership between the Kentucky Office of the New Economy, private industry, Kentucky's universities, and the Center for Information Technology Enterprise. Along with the bill signing, BellSouth Corp., whose president serves as co-chair of connectKentucky, announced it was expanding DSL Internet service to 59 more Kentucky communities between now and the end of the year.

"Broadband is essential to building a more competitive local economy," Gov. Fletcher said. "In this bipartisan effort to encourage broadband expansion, we are giving rural communities greater opportunity for economic development."