Rogers Leads Tour of "Silicon Holler"

Press Release

U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers (KY-05) served as a tour guide on Wednesday, October 22, as 50 leaders from across southern and eastern Kentucky boarded a tour bus, dubbed by Rogers as the "Silicon Holler Express."

The tour was designed to help leaders of the SOAR-Shaping Our Appalachian Region organization learn more about five sophisticated facilities currently utilizing high-speed Internet along I-75 in southern Kentucky. Each company displayed the types of opportunities that could be created in the rest of the region with the development of the 3,000-mile broadband interstate, announced by Congressman Rogers and Governor Steve Beshear, that is scheduled to begin in Eastern Kentucky before the end of the year and will be extended to the rest of the Commonwealth.

"We're already doing high-tech business where high-speed Internet is available, but with Kentucky's new 'Super I-way,' we will be able to recruit even more complex businesses, and draw them to what I like to call Silicon Holler," said Rogers, referencing the high-tech jobs in the famed Silicon Valley. "The first phase of the broadband project is expected to be complete in the next 18 months, so now is the time to plan our work and work our plan."

"Access to high-speed and high-quality Internet is no longer a luxury; it's a necessity in the 21st century economy. Businesses and schools demand it," said Gov. Beshear. "That's why Congressman Rogers and I announced an ambitious state and federal investment earlier this year to extend critically-needed high-speed broadband Internet access to the furthest reaches of the Commonwealth. This tour shows the region's leaders the opportunities that reliable, accessible and affordable high-speed internet can bring to a community."

The underserved eastern Kentucky region will be the first priority area for the project, which will be supported by $60 million in state bonds and $40 million in federal and private sources.

"This project will transform the future of eastern Kentucky. It will change the forefront of job recruitment, education, healthcare and tourism," said Jared Arnett, SOAR's newly named Founding Executive Director. "Recruitment for companies seeking this fiber optic infrastructure and low costs starts right now. With new resources allocated through SOAR and the collaboration of people from across all aisles, we are already engineering a new path forward for the people of this region."

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