Warren RECC, NCTC partnership to bring high-speed internet to rural Warren Co.
ALVATON, Ky. – For some residents in rural Warren County, it can be a challenge to get reliable internet service still.
A new partnership between cooperatives might fix that.
“It’s more than just accessibility for texting or whatever, it’s about a quality of life,” said Warren Co. Judge Executive Mike Buchanon.
The quality of life for residents in nearly 800 households in rural southeast Warren County is set to improve thanks to a pilot project announced on Wednesday morning between Warren RECC and NCTC, a Tennessee-based telephone cooperative.
“If you talk to our members in this area, they have almost zero access to quality, high-speed internet,” said Dewayne McDonald, president and CEO of Warren RECC. “It’s been a need for years.”
That need will be addressed by the start of the new year.
“Being a cooperative you realize the importance that your members are to your company, and we’re trying everything we can to make our members have a better life,” said NCTC President and CEO Johnny McClanahan. “Broadband is definitely a way to do that.”
As a pilot project, the companies will gauge the success they have with this area before deciding on expanding their services further to other areas in Warren County.
“We’re using it to test our assumptions we’ve made of our costs going forward,” said McDonald. “The more people that sign up, the more affordable it gets to allow us to expand and go further.”
At this time, they haven’t released a per-month price for the services, but residents in the area will be able to sign-up for high-speed internet in a few weeks at the following link: https://nctc.com/sign-up/
Many of the needed resources to create this broadband network already exist, just another added bonus of this collaboration.
“[Warren] RECC has all of the assets to bring the fiber through our community,” said Buchanon. “We already have the poles, the lines and the ability to deliver the fiber.”
It’s still a project that will involved a lot of work, and installation is expected to take the next several weeks.
The introduction of more broadband resources in the area won’t just benefit rural parts of the county, it’ll benefit the community as a whole, too.
“It’ll enable our community to continue to compete for good businesses, good workforce and a greater quality of life for families throughout our community,” Buchanon added.
