Local officials hear updates on broadband
State targeting areas unable to receive reliable services
The Arkansas State Broadband Office held a meeting in Forrest City on Friday to give an update on broadband projects across the state.
The meeting was held in the Quorum Court meeting room at the St. Francis County Courthouse and attended by several local business representatives and government agencies.
State Broadband Director Glen Howie told the group the broadband issue is much larger than just an issue with constructing infrastructure in the state.
"The vision and mission that we have of moving forward as a state is to eliminate the divide by 2028," said Howie. "For some of you in the industry, some of this will be familiar, and for some, it will be brand new information. I know this can sound like sort of an inflated, political phrase without much behind it, so what does it mean from a tactical and actionable standpoint for Arkansas?
"The broadband issue is something much broader than just infrastructure," Howie continued. "It is also an affordability issue and digital skills issue. I kind of paint it as the three pillars of broadband. We can make St. Francis County the most wired county in the country. We can run fiber to every house and business, but if some of our folks can't afford it, that is a problem. Likewise, we could run the fiber and make it free for people, but if they don't have the devices they need or the digital skills to access and use those devices, they don't want to subscribe because they don't know how it could change their life for the better."
Howie said that since 2020, over $1 billion has been awarded in infrastructure grants to about thousands of locations statewide.
"This is moving from being a soul focus on infrastructure, which we still know that we have to complete and that we have a job to do," said Howie. "Now it includes the affordability piece and the digital skills. That is how we are going to be different from the past. At a statewide level, on the access to infrastructure level going back to 2020, there has been over $1 billion awarded for infrastructure grants to the tune of about 330,000 locations across the state."
According to Howie, the agency’s goal is to have all projects, no matter how big or small, completed within two years of their start dates.
"There are different programs with different timelines," explained Howie. "The one we like to give as an example is the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund or the RDOF program. It is administered by the FCC at a federal level. That particular program has a six-year time frame to build. No matter how small or large the project is, our goal moving forward is to have the job completed in two years or less. I don't care how big or small it is."
Howie said there are about 600,000 households across the state that qualify for a $30 per month discount program for internet services.
"Obviously, we can't come in and tell local internet service providers to charge $20 for gigabyte services," said Howie. "We don't want to do that, but we can do certain things to try and bring down prices and make it more affordable. There is the affordable connectivity program that allows for $30 per month discount if you qualify for the program. There are multiple things that qualify such as if a student receives free lunch at school, that household would qualify for the affordable connectivity program. If a college student is awarded a Pell grant, that household qualifies. We think that between all of the criteria that exists, there are about 600,000 households across Arkansas that could qualify for the program.
"We have to do a better job as a state office and as a state to help these people get enrolled," continued Howie. "We would estimate that about 6,000 households in St. Francis County are eligible for the discount program, but as of today, a little less than 2,000 have enrolled."
Forrest City Mayor Larry Bryant stressed that as the project moves forward, some of the “voids” within Forrest City and St. Francis County could be remedied.
"I think the whole program would be good for St. Francis County and Forrest City in particular," said Bryant. "It would be able to reach a number of people throughout the area who are in broadband deserts. I hate to overuse the word desert, but it is like a desert because they don't have the services they need. I think as we move forward in the next year that we should be able to fill some of the voids that we have in the city of Forrest City as well as St. Francis County."