Kenergy and Conexon promise high-speed wifi throughout region

OUR REGION

OHIO

Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022 39

Kenergy and Conexon promise high-speed wifi throughout region

BY KEN SILVA

MESSENGER-INQUIRER

In Hancock County and other rural areas, many residents must turn to places such as public libraries for their high-speed internet needs.

“We have some people who will come with their device and sit in the parking lot,” said Hancock Public Library Director Tina Snyder. “They don’t need to come in and do anything. They’ll just sit there and check their email, check their Facebook and download whatever they have to download.”

That could soon change, thanks to an ambitious project by regional power provider Kenergy and Conexon, an internet provider that specializes in rural areas.

Kenergy and Conexon announced Aug. 9 that it was beginning its long-promised initiative to provide high-speed internet to some 49,000 consumers across 14 counties, including Daviess, Hancock, McLean, Muhlenberg and Ohio.

That will entail stringing more than 7,000 miles of fiber-optic wire on Kenergy’s power poles throughout the region. Such an endeavor would typically take up to 15 years, according to Conexon partner Jonathan Chambers.

However, Chambers said at the Aug. 9 project launch that his company aims to string about 2,000 miles of fiber a year, which is double Conexon’s usual rate and quadruple that of many other firms.

Chambers said Conexon is aiming to double its output due to the delays in getting the project off the ground.

The delays began with a lack of legislative support, according to Kenergy CEO Jeff Hohn. One of the reasons Kenergy partnered with Conexon was its experience in lobbying politicians, Hohn said on Aug. 9.

That partnership apparently paid off. In March 2021, the Kentucky state legislature passed House Bill 320, which allowed electric co-ops to enter the broadband industry so long as it doesn’t interfere with their main mandate of providing reliable and affordable electricity to their members.

But the legislation’s passage didn’t remove all the legal barriers to Kenergy starting its project. After filing an application in September. 2021 with the state’s Public Service Commission to begin the project, an association of investor-owned internet providers objected to the plan.

That association — the Kentucky Broadband Kentucky Broadband & Cable Association (KBCA) — argued that its investor-backed members shouldn’t have to face “ratepayer-subsidized competition” from nonprofit electric cooperatives such as Kenergy.

After a roughly nine-month dispute, the Public Service Commission green-lit Kenergy’s proposal in a July 1 order.

But the KBCA pressed further, arguing that the order wasn’t clear on whether Kenergy could build out broadband in all areas, or just the ones that are unserved or underserved. The trade association asked the Public Service Commission on Aug. 1 to clarify the issue in a rehearing.

The Public Service Commission again ruled in Kenergy and Conexon’s favor on Aug. 10, denying KCBA’s motion for a rehearing.

The KBCA still has the option to file for judicial review over the Public Service Commission’s decision but hasn’t responded to questions about whether it will.

Either way, Chambers and Hohn said the legal issues aren’t going to stop Conexon and Kenergy from moving full-steam ahead on the project.

“I’m not telling the incumbents where we’re coming, other than to say we’re coming everywhere,” Chambers said, projecting that his company will be able to start providing service to the first areas by the end of the year.

State representative Suzanne Miles helped pass legislation to allow electric coops to provide broadband in rural areas. She said the coops now have “no excuses” to deliver high-speed internet to their members.

Photo by Ken Silva

40 OUR REGION Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022

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