Kentucky’s recently created Office of Broadband Development is on a statewide listening tour to gather input for a five-year deployment plan, and Warren County was its latest stop.

On Tuesday, the Barren River Area Development District hosted leaders of the broadband effort alongside several dozen regional residents, internet service providers and representatives for nonprofits and government agencies eager to discuss the region’s broadband needs and barriers.

The bulk of broadband funds are coming down from the Biden administration’s Internet for All program, overseen by the NTIA, said Tim LeDonne, executive director of Connected Nation, a nonprofit group hired by Kentucky’s broadband office to help develop a plan.

NTIA has about $43 billion to distribute throughout the nation, and Kentucky is set to get between $700 million and $1.3 billion through two programs, LeDonne said.

The first is the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program, whose funds are intended to lay the infrastructure for broadband. The Digital Equity Act has a smaller pot of money designed to train communities how to utilize that infrastructure through digital literacy and training.

The listening sessions are focused on reaching eight key populations, LeDonne said: individuals who are low income; are over 60 years old; have a disability; are incarcerated; face language barriers; are veterans; live in rural areas or are members of a racial or ethnic minority group.

“Diversity is critical to us as we develop this five year plan,” he said.

During the session, attendees discussed the status of broadband access in their communities, their broadband priorities and the biggest barriers, among other issues.

They described internet connectivity in the region as “expensive,” “unreliable,” “inconsistent” and “kinda sorta available.”

One woman from Rockfield said that she lives in a pocket of her community half a mile from where the internet lines end, so she has to buy satellite internet for $209 a month so her grandchild can do virtual school and she can work from home twice a week.

“I think COVID really brought it to a head because when we were home permanently at one point and she was home permanently doing school at one point, it was a battle in our house to try to figure out how to juggle our expensive internet,” she said.

She added that internet service providers won’t extend lines to her home because it’s too expensive.

Another woman, Aimee Coleman, said that she lives a mile past the broadband cutoff on Hammett Hill Road in Bowling Green. Coleman had 6 mbps DSL for years and can’t upgrade to high-speed internet because hilly terrain with trees is blocking their signal.

“My husband and I have had to turn down some job opportunities that are work from home positions because we don’t trust that connectivity,” she said. “I’ve tried to work from home before and my calls drops in the middle, so then I have to run into the office and try to connect, and so it’s challenging.”

Wes Kerr, director of community solutions at Connected Nation, said that COVID changed things overnight, making high-speed Internet increasingly important. Emira Ikanovic, retail sales consultant at AT&T, agreed.

“Now, more so than ever, we are turning to the internet for opportunities with work in school,” Ikanovic said. “You see more kids nowadays going on to online schooling and more people than ever working from home, so it’s an opportunity for the average American to live a successful life.”

High-speed internet also brings in businesses, which subsequently brings in investors helping those businesses grow, she added, using Chattanooga as an example.

“It’s just a vicious cycle of success,” Ikanovic said.

Broadband is a long-term investment not unlike the interstate system, and should be treated as such, said an internet service provider representative at the listening session. He said Kentucky has to think about what it might need decades in the future, not just what it needs now.

“As a taxpayer, I want to make sure we’re not investing in something that’s going to be outdated very shortly but we’re spending the money on something that is going to be useful,” he said.

This could be a pricey investment though, he said, considering that the entire nation is getting this funding at the same time and chasing “too few constrained supplies and labor” to deploy broadband. Competition with other states could drive up the cost, he said.

Another focus of the conversation was digital equity. In an increasingly digital world, some people have been left behind, and there need to be opportunities for those individuals to develop digital literacy skills, said Beth Brinly, deputy secretary of the Education and Labor Cabinet.

“We know here in Kentucky that if you do not have any digital skills that you can expect about $15 an hour as your peak wage,” said Brinly, who is responsible for obtaining and distributing Kentucky’s DEA funds. “But if you have more digital skills, you can expect to make 43 plus and that is transformational for you as an individual, for your family, for generations to come for your community.”

The DEA plans to partner with local nonprofits to fill in those gaps, Brinly said.

At the close of the session, Greg Hale, general manager at LTC Connect, said that there were a few concerns missing from the conversation, including sustainability.

Hale said many of the broadband grants only require Internet service providers to serve areas for five years, and some ISPs might leave at that point if they no longer view it as a profitable investment.

“We need to find a way to make sure that the providers are committed to being there for 10, 20, 30, 40 years,” he said.

Brinly, Kerr, LeDonne and Meghan Sandfoss, executive director of Kentucky’s broadband office, will take the input from the session to use in their five-year plan.

“This funding opportunity has never happened before and it may never happen again,” said Chip Spann, Kentucky and West Virginia federal program officer for the Office of Internet Connectivity and Growth.

“So we want to make sure that we provide and create a good plan within Kentucky so we get a healthy portion of that $43 billion to do what we need to do to connect every citizen in Kentucky.”