By Shelly Baskin
Murray, KY – The first part of a massive regional broadband overhaul is nearly complete. The work is ongoing almost a year after West Kentucky and Tennessee Telecommunications Coop received more than 120 million dollars in government loans and grants to upgrade its service. Mike Lee of WK&T says of the funding,
"In order for us to provide the same quality service to rural America that you might find in bigger cities across this country it was very important for us to get some type of government assistance in order to have this done in a timely manner."
Lee says the project when fully completed around the summer of 2014 will either upgrade, or bring new services to some 21 thousand households in 11 Counties in West Kentucky and Tennessee. The 3 year long implementation has started with installations in the Farmington, Fancy Farm, and Puryear. Lee says,
"Our customers are going to be able to connect at an internet speed that is just as high or higher than some of those services that you might find in a more populated area or a major university "
Lee says the old service was only capable of about 3 megabits-per-second. The new lines boost speeds to over 20 megabits-per-second. Lee says new services in Farmington, Fancy Farm, and Puryear should be completed by the end of the year.