U.S. Rep. Guthrie leads multi-agency discussion about broadband expansion
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Friday, Aug. 6, 2021 — U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie presided over a broadband roundtable discussion Friday morning at the Nelson County Public Library.
The discussion brought together representatives from the U.S. Department of agriculture, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and FCC Commissioner Brenda Carr to discuss federal efforts to expand broadband access in to underserved areas of Kentucky.
Nationally, more than $800 billion has been allocated for expanding broadband access, which FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said was “enough money to close the digital divide” between urban and rural parts of America.
The meeting included the mayors of Bardstown, Bloomfield and New Haven, as well as Judge Executive Dean Watts and other elected officials.
In February, Charter Communications told Nelson Fiscal Court that it had been awarded the contract to provide broadband access to underserved parts of the county.
The City of Bardstown provides broadband to areas of the county, and as it turned out, a number of the areas the FCC had designated as “underserved” were actually being served by the city’s cable internet. According to Watts, it wasn’t a clear-cut process on who to contact to let them know of the overlap — Charter’s contract is to serve underserved areas, not overbuild access in a area already served.
New Haven Mayor Tessie Cecil also said that their internet provider — Spectrum — had no local office, and she felt the company’s promise to upgrade wasn’t being met.
Laura Spining, deputy associate administrator of broadband programs for NTIA, told attendees that right now there are several different federal agencies with funding programs aimed at expanding broadband, but there was no central clearing house for information about them, and not sufficient coordination among them.
Nahom Ayele, an engineer with the City of Bardstown, said that Spectrum Communications would not release maps of their actual coverage areas, stating those maps are proprietary information.
Spining told the group that an effort is underway to create more accurate coverage maps, though she admitted they probably won’t be as detailed as providers might like.
Representatives with the USDA told the group about grant and loan programs available to assist with broadband development.
One of the problems with all of the fedeeral programs from different agencies is that the deadlines and details vary widely, and can be difficult to track for those seeking funding.
The roundtable lasted nearly two hours. Guthrie and the same group of federal officials conducted a second roundtable discussion Friday afternoon in Leitchfield.
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