Kentucky’s middle-mile network is set to go dark, disconnecting thousands of residents

Thousands of Kentucky residents, along with several state and local government offices, universities and other critical service providers, could lose internet access in the coming weeks after KentuckyWired, the state’s open-access middle-mile broadband network, cancelled its contract with the network’s administrator.

In mid-April, internet service providers in Kentucky began receiving a 30-day disconnection notice from KentuckyWired and the agency that oversees the network, the Kentucky Communications Network Authority, or KCNA. The KentuckyWired system was announced as a public-private partnership in 2013 to provide each county in the state with a high-speed broadband access point.

After a troubled and costly rollout, the network has provided critical internet infrastructure to state and local government offices, courthouses, hospitals, schools, colleges and businesses. Beyond critical services, half of the 3,200-mile fiber optic KentuckyWired network allows private ISPs to tap in to sell last-mile services, especially in rural and other hard-to-reach areas.

Since 2021, sales of KentuckyWired connections to last-mile ISPs were managed by the private telecom firm Accelecom, also called OpenFiber Kentucky Company, which the state contracted to oversee across all 120 counties, in part to reduce costs for the state. But following “a series of ongoing serious breaches of contract,” KCNA terminated the contract with Accelecom in January, according to Doug Hendrix, KCNA’s executive director.

Hendrix told StateScoop that Accelecom had also begun selling last-mile services, which is a breach of its contract with the state. The last-mile offering could present a conflict of interest between Accelecom selling service directly to customers, and then selling connections through KentuckyWired to members ISPs, which may be competing for the same customers.

‘For the benefit of all Kentuckians’

Hendrix claimed Accelecom was also connecting to the network without notice and approval, refusing to allow KCNA’s auditor to begin a review of Accelecom as required by contract, failing to pay for use of the network and “not providing open access to this public asset for the benefit of all Kentuckians.”

Following litigation of the potential contract breaches, some of which are still ongoing, the Franklin County, Kentucky, Circuit Court ordered KCNA to provide a 30-days advance notice to all of Accelecom’s customers of the disconnection. Those notices went out in mid-April, notifying internet service providers of the contract cancellation along with a statement regarding Accelecom’s refusal to cooperate to ensure continuity of service. KCNA’s website was also updated within the last to include a copy of the disconnection notice.

KCNA states it will not disconnect Accelecom from the KentuckyWired network without providing additional notice to Accelecom’s customers, giving those customers at least another 30 days to take action. But industry groups say this may not be enough to ensure that critical services using the KentuckyWired network through Accelecom do not lose internet access.

‘Their entire network will turn off’

Steve Schwerbel, director of state advocacy at the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, said several of his group’s member ISPs are at risk of losing access. In some cases, he said, the networks that Kentucky ISPs rely on will become fragile, because KentuckyWired serves as a backup system in the event of network failure. He said some networks will be completely offline until a new KentuckyWired administrator is found.

“In one instance, a provider who currently uses KCNA and KentuckyWired to have that middle-mile access, their entire network will turn off,” Schwerbel said. “This is maybe 600 or 1,000 homes and businesses in Kentucky, and it’s going to take them six to nine months for the other provider that is available to them to connect them. So it’s going to be half a year before that community that they serve gets back online.”

John Gill, owner of the rural ISP Kentucky Fi, told StateScoop that if the disconnection goes ahead as planned, 90% of his network will go dark, and it would bankrupt his company. Gill and WISPA were both informed that the network’s “dark date” will be in about two to three months following the notice from KentuckyWired.

KentuckyWired’s Hendrix said Accelecom’s customers will have time to explore alternative providers, and that Accelecom may continue providing service if it’s not provided using the KentuckyWired network.

“In the interim, Accelecom’s customers will continue to receive service until they change providers or Accelecom’s circuits are disconnected,” he said in an emailed statement. “Public entities, such as governments, health departments, and libraries, may be able to connect directly to the KentuckyWired network and receive service. Currently, KCNA provides service to many executive branch agencies, public universities, community colleges, and the Administrative Office of the Courts.  To date, KCNA has connected 594 sites to the network.”

‘Disservice to the communities’

Hendrix said KCNA has repeatedly requested that Accelecom provide further details about its customers and identify all the services it has provided, and the agency has also tried to engage in negotiations to mitigate the impacts of the disconnection of Accelecom from the KentuckyWired network.

“Accelecom has not been willing to discuss their separation and how to redress the impacts of their failure to fulfil the public purpose of the KentuckyWired project,” Hendrix wrote. He added that next steps, like formally soliciting a new network administrator, are “under consideration,” though he did not provide a timeline.

Schwerbel said that while WISPA is sympathetic to KCNA’s argument that Accelecom violated the terms of its contract with the state, most ISPs don’t have enough time to find an alternative because, in some cases, no alternative exists.

“However, it is imperative that KCNA develop a plan now to find a replacement for Accelecom that can step in immediately to ensure that no ISP loses access to KentuckyWired for even a day while Accelecom is removed,” Schwerbel said. “ISPs do not ‘have time’ to find alternatives — in at least one case, there literally is no other option available; in another, it will take 6-9 months for the alternative connection to go live. This means that hundreds of residents and businesses will be without any broadband access until a new vendor is found to replace Accelecom.

“Allowing any loss of access is a disservice to the communities that depend on KentuckyWired and an abrogation of the state’s commitment, represented in the multimillion-dollar investment in constructing the network, to keeping rural and underserved communities online.”

In a statement provided to StateScoop, Accelecom CEO Brad Kilbey claimed that KCNA is just as to blame for the situation.

“We intend to prove that KCNA has repeatedly breached its contract with Accelecom, culminating in its unilateral decision to terminate the parties’ agreement and disconnect the customers it was created to serve,” Kilbey’s statement reads. “Those customers include more than 240 healthcare clinics and hospitals, 634,000 K-12 students, 44 internet service providers that serve tens of thousands of residents many in rural areas — and hundreds of businesses.

“Any suggestion that the court has resolved the parties’ disputes in KCNA’s favor — or that KCNA has conducted its relationship with Accelecom in good faith — is categorically false.”