LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Every home and business in Oldham County now has high-speed fiber optic Internet access. It is the first county in Kentucky to complete the connection and bridge the digital divide.
Oldham County officials and AT&T announced Tuesday the completion of the $33 million project to expand broadband access in the area.
The public-private partnership will give 20,000 new customer locations high-speed Internet access, and Oldham County officials said the project will uplift the entire community.
“High-speed broadband is a game changer for both individuals and the entire community,” Oldham County Executive Judge David Voegele said Tuesday. “This puts Oldham County at the top of our game and puts our people ahead of virtually everyone else in this state.”
“We need it,” said Erin LaCroix, owner of LaCroix Training Center in La Grange. “It definitely should.”
Near Old Sligo Road, LaCroix and her husband train and rehabilitate thoroughbreds at their working horse farm. They’ve been in Oldham County since 1997, when Internet access was hard to get off the beaten track.
“It wasn’t good,” LaCroix said. “Very slowly.”
LaCroixs spent decades running a business and a handful of employees with bad internet. They changed providers at least three times looking for a more reliable option.
“We watch a lot of racehorse videos, and if it takes too long to load, it’s pointless,” she said. “Plus, you know, if you need to send email, you have to have things that move.”
Finally, after the pandemic, amid a nationwide push to expand high-speed Internet to rural areas, fiber optic cable was installed by Spectrum.Â
LaCroix Training Center’s connection to nature and the Internet are now parallel.
“It has made a world of difference,” she said. “Just faster. You don’t have to sit and wait.”
But Oldham County is only the first county in the entire state to boast their full connectivity. The state’s broadband map shows thousands of Kentuckians remain unserved or completely unserved.
However, last September, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced a $386 million investment in high-speed Internet that is expected to bring service to more than 42,600 homes and businesses. According to a release from Beshear’s office, more than 25,000 locations are considered to have no service and more than 17,000 locations are considered unserved.
The state project is expected to expand access to 46 counties, including Bullitt, Nelson, Henry and Shelby counties.
It’s also part of a statewide initiative called the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which delivered $1.1 billion in federal dollars to Kentucky for high-speed Internet access for every Kentuckian.
In a statement to WDRB News, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s administration boasted of efforts to connect every corner of the community:
Governor Beshear knows that high-speed Internet is no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity for work, school, health care and more, and every Kentuckian deserves access. Since taking office, the Governor has secured more than $2 billion in federal, state and private funding to connect every home and business in the Commonwealth. These include the largest public investment in high-speed Internet in the state’s history.
In June 2022, Governor Beshear awarded Charter Communications more than $49 million to connect 18,553 households and businesses in 13 counties, including more than 440 locations in Oldham County.
Governor Beshear has continued to prioritize the expansion of high-speed Internet in his second term. In May, he joined Charter Communications executives as they brought high-speed Internet service to Berry, Ky., for the first time, marking the company’s 10,000th local community service. In March, he announced the first high-speed Internet investment of his second term: $20.4 million that will connect 2,353 homes and businesses in Henderson County and 1,221 homes and businesses in Daviess County. The state awarded more than $10.2 million to electric cooperative Kenergy to complete the work, and the company is securing $10.2 million in matching funds.
While Oldham Countians are grateful and proud to be the first to say every home and business has access, officials around the state hope others’ connections are close.
“This puts Oldham County at the top of our game and puts our people ahead of virtually everyone else in this state,” said Oldham County Judge Executive David Voegele.
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