West Kentucky Rural Telephone Cooperative (now “WK&T”) was incorporated in July 1951. In September of 1952, the Company received a loan from the Rural Electrification Administration (RUS) to provide telephone service to the citizens of West Kentucky and in the Tennessee counties of Henry and Weakley. With this loan, construction of a modern, dial telephone service began in the spring of 1953. As a not-for-profit telephone cooperative, the companyʼs purpose is to provide the highest quality, most technically advanced, and most dependable service available to its members.

Since those early beginnings, the cooperative has grown from 1,350 subscribers to over 18,000 connections receiving state-of-the-art telecommunications service. The Companyʼs service territory encompasses over 3,100 route miles. In June of 2006, West Kentucky acquired Yorkville Telephone Company (Tennessee), welcoming over 2,000 Yorkville customers into the WK&T family. On Oct. 9, 2009, West Kentucky telephone became West Kentucky & Tennessee Telecommunications Cooperative, known as “WK&T.”

In 2009, WK&T pursued and was awarded a $123.8 million grant/loan through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — the largest amount awarded by the federal government that year through the Broadband Initiatives Program. In 2016, WK&T announced that fiber internet would be coming to Martin, Tennessee, and in 2018, the company announced that Dresden, Tennessee, would be next in line to receive fiber internet. In the same year, WK&T received a $3 million Community Connect grant to bring fiber to Dukedom, Tennessee.

WK&T has continued to impact and grow its service area, providing the critical infrastructure to support and enrich the lives of residents and businesses in Weakley and Henry counties. In 2019, WK&T received a $2 million matching grant from the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development to bring fiber internet to the area of Henry County that lies east of Highway 79 and west of Kentucky Lake. WK&T matched these funds, investing more than $4 million in the fiber internet network.

The expansion continued in 2020 as WK&T received a $2 million matching grant from Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development to build fiber in an east central portion of Weakley County near Sharon. This was followed by a partnership with Graves County to expand fiber to 4,000 locations. The cooperative is also awarded a $1.64 million grant to provide 350 households in Henry County and a $1.025 million grant to bring fiber internet to 1,120 households in Weakley County from the Tennessee Emergency Broadband Fund. Also in 2020, WK&T secured a ReConnect grant of $610,000 to expand fiber into Graves County east of Mayfield and $14.9 million to expand into five counties in southern Illinois. In 2021, WK&T was awarded a $2 million grant from the TNECD to build fiber-fast internet in parts of northeast Weakley County, including the town of Palmersville. WK&T and Weakley County matched the grant funds, bringing the total investment to $6 million.

WK&T has grown to a full-fledged telecommunications company, now offering high speed fiber internet to a growing list of members.

In addition to our headquarters in Mayfield at the WK&T Tech Park, we offer members convenient locations in Murray and Martin.

Our tradition of breaking ground with new technology continues as we bring life-changing fiber internet to every member of the communities we serve.