Overview

A private-public-partnership with Joink, an Indiana based service provider, will create the county’s first ever fiber broadband services for residential customers. The county is largely considered unserved or underserved by FFC broadband standards which severely hinders the attraction/retention of workforce and the development of housing. The County has committed a minimum of $1.5M toward and Joink is committing $8.5M toward this initial project. Fiber access to approximately 2000 residences will occur. $1.5M of READI funds will be used in ARPA compliant portions of the project serving approximately 1000 unserved or underserved homes as defined by the FCC. The county is 15 minutes from significant job creation near Purdue University and recognizes the criticality of broadband infrastructure to support workforce growth. The project is expected to start in July 2023 and end in June 2025.The READI funds will be used toward the first phase of the project and will install the middle mile, build out State Line City, and passings along the middle mile fiber route to State Line City.