FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler visited McKee, Ky., on February 8 to highlight Peoples Rural Telephone Cooperative’s success in creating a high-speed, fiber optic network in one of the most rugged and economically depressed areas of the country.
“I hope you folks realize what a big deal this is, and what a big deal connecting every home and business to high-speed fiber is,” Wheeler said.
The chairman said he often speaks in other communities around the nation and across the world. “Now, I’m going to be talking about Jackson County in those other places. And I’ll tell them that, ‘If they can do it up in those hollers, you can, too.’”
Fiber technology is shaping the future of rural Kentucky, where high-speed, broadband Internet attracts employers and offers the foundation for tomorrow’s technologies today.