Hazard reaches Kinetic gig-ready milestone, broadband expands countywide

More than 8,900 Hazard locations now sit inside Kinetic’s fiber footprint, pushing the Perry County seat past the company’s gig-ready threshold and widening access for work, school, telehealth and small-business use across the city and its immediate environs.

Kinetic said May 20 that Hazard became a Gig-Ready Community, its designation for places where more than 75% of homes can access its high-speed fiber network. The company said the Hazard buildout now reaches more than 8,900 locations, a mark that matters in a city where Hazard Utilities serves about 6,500 customers in and around town and where reliable internet has become a basic economic tool, not just a convenience.

The company’s Kentucky expansion is part of a larger buildout. On May 13, Kinetic said it delivered multi-gig fiber internet to 12,600 additional homes across more than 70 Kentucky communities in the first quarter of 2026. Kinetic framed that broader work as support for remote work, gaming, streaming, agriculture and telehealth, all services that depend on consistent upload and download speeds as much as raw bandwidth.

For Perry County, the change lands in a place long shaped by infrastructure gaps and public investment. The Perry County Fiscal Court approved a resolution on January 31, 2023, to act as the legal sponsor for the Big Creek Broadband Expansion Project, a reminder that local officials have been forced to treat internet access as a core piece of county development. Kentucky’s Office of Broadband Development, created in 2022, was set up to improve access in unserved and underserved communities and to support job creation, innovation, education, health care and public safety.

State leaders have also poured money into the issue. Gov. Andy Beshear announced a $386 million broadband investment on September 5, 2023, to expand high-speed internet in 46 counties and reach more than 42,600 homes and businesses. In that context, Hazard’s new designation is more than a marketing label. It is another sign that fiber buildouts are starting to reach deeper into eastern Kentucky, even as the county continues to push for more coverage in places still waiting on service.