Aspiring Gigabit Cities Look to Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky Henryk Sadura / Shutterstock.com
The Athens of the West wants to finance a last-mile connection to a forthcoming statewide middle-mile broadband network.
Urban residents are beginning to expect a fast, quality broadband connection throughout their respective cities, so municipal leaders met Thursday in Lexington, Kentucky, to discuss financing options.
The Bluegrass State struck an innovative public-private partnership with Sydney-based global investment banking firm Macquarie Capital to construct an open-access middle-mile network—allowing multiple, even small, Internet service providers to offer reasonably priced, high-capacity connections—that cities like Lexington can tap into with last-mile networks.
Both Lexington Mayor Jim Gray and Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary Lori Flanery shared best practices at the Financing for Next Generation Broadband event hosted by Next Century Cities, a nonprofit collaborative of more than 100 communities that aim to boost projects to bring higher-speed Internet connectivity.
“Lexington is working to become a gigabit city,” Gray said in a statement. “High-speed Internet is critical to our economic competitiveness and quality of life.”
Next Century Cities has already issued a policy agenda for local officials looking to establish broadband networks for their residents and, aside from a panel on Kentucky’s breakthroughs, featured discussions on overcoming barriers to the “last mile” of broadband infrastructure, business options and securing federal support.
“Communities across the country are seeking more information about how to finance the type of projects that will build critical 21st century broadband infrastructure for their citizens,” said Deb Socia, Next Century Cities executive director. “Today’s important discussions provided a unique opportunity for community leaders to learn about a wide variety of options and hear success stories that they can build on.”
The full agenda of the half-day’s events is here.
Dave Nyczepir is News Editor for Government Executive’s Route Fifty.
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