Chapter 6: Risks and Rewards for Public Value: A Public Private Partnership to Expand Rural Broadband in the State of Kentucky

In 2014, a rare confluence of market, geographic, and political factors converged in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The business community began noticing the investment in high-speed internet infrastructure in neighboring states such as Indiana and Tennessee, and the increasing economic development gains in booming cities such as Indianapolis and Nashville. In the several years prior, Kentucky had only modest gains and economic growth, largely realized in the cities along interstates I-71, I-75, and I-64 (Millsap et al., 2017). The rest of the state is rural with only two other cities in the state with larger than 50,000 residents: Owensboro and Bowling Green.