In the summer of 2024, “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal visited McKee, Kentucky, as part of our Inflation Reduction Act series, Breaking Ground. Through the $42 billion Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, also known as BEAD, the federal government aimed to connect every household in the country to broadband by 2030.

Since Ryssdal visited McKee, President Donald Trump took office and switched the Biden administration’s “fiber first” approach to one that is “tech neutral.” In McKee, every home and business has been connected to fiber internet since 2014, thanks to the People’s Rural Telephone Cooperative, or PRTC. That’s what brought “Marketplace” there — to see what an all-fiber future could look like.

Recently, Ryssdal spoke with PRTC CEO Keith Gabbard to hear what’s new at the nonprofit. PRTC is continuing to build fiber in several surrounding counties with the help of some federal programs beyond BEAD.

“We’re trying to look for every bit of possible help we can get,” Gabbard said. “Most of these are part loan, part grant, but we’re trying to provide good broadband to these folks.”

Click the audio player above to hear their conversation.