EA Cable TV announces upgrades to service area
Company to make territory ‘Gig City’
East Arkansas Cable TV recently announced its intent to invest over $1.6 million in upgrades to make the entire service area a “Gig City.”
During a press conference at the Forrest City Civic Center Thursday afternoon, Walter E. Hussman Jr., chairman of WEHCO Media, Inc., the parent company of East Arkansas Cable TV, and publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, explained how East Arkansas Cable TV was started.
"I was reading the paper one day and I saw where a cable company had gone bankrupt and that there was going to be an auction," said Hussman. "They set a date for the auction in January at the St. Francis County Courthouse. Low and behold, there was a snow and ice storm. I wanted to try and get here, so I thought about driving but the roads were too slick. I thought about chartering a plane, but because the roads were slick, so were the runways. So I did something I have never done since. I chartered a helicopter to fly me here from Little Rock to Forrest City to bid at the auction. Somehow, we won the bid and reopened this cable company.
“It was in bad shape when we got it, but we invested and rebuilt the system. That was in January of 1977. That was 44 years ago,” said Hussman. “My father’s and grandfather’s idea was to invest long-term in a business. It is hard to find a cable company that has been owned by the same people for 44 years. We may have gotten a better return had we sold it one day, but that is not the business we are in. We earn our return through owning and operating a business."
According to Hussman, through this upgrade, customers will be receiving speeds of up to 1 gigabit, which is roughly 40 times faster than the definition of high-speed Internet, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
"Things have changed in technology and now we can take our existing plant and upgrade it
and deliver much faster speeds," said Hussman. "The Federal Communications Commission defines what high-speed Internet is, which is 25 megabits per second. Currently, we are now delivering 250 megabits per second. That is 10 times what the FCC defines as high-speed Internet. That is pretty fast. Through this upgrade, we can deliver up to 1 gigabit, which is 1,000 megabits. That is really fast Internet."
Hussman said the addition of high-speed Internet in the area could entice more businesses to locate here.
"Once we get upgraded, we are not just going to serve highincome neighborhoods or business districts," said Hussman. "We are going to serve everybody. We feel that this is the only fair and neighborly thing to do. This is a pretty good investment for us. Once we get this completed, the cities of Forrest City, Wynne and Marianna will have just as high speed of service that can be found in Memphis or Little Rock. It will put these cities on a level playing field for getting businesses to move to these towns."
According to Hussman, the company is pleased to bring this service into smaller towns throughout the state.
"We need infrastructure in small towns in America," Hussman continued. "Not just for schools, but for businesses as well. We are really pleased about this and we are doing this with our own money. We have used some federal grants in areas such as Palestine, where we just used a federal grant to get our Internet service to Palestine. They will also receive 1 gig service. We are an Arkansas-based company. We love Arkansas and this is where we want to do business and spend our money. We are pleased to do this."
Hussman said construction will begin in early 2022 with the expectation of being finished by January 2023.
"The new plants will be constructed at our current sites," said Hussman. "We will be replacing a lot of the old amplifiers and fiber nodes. We will be making extensions as well. It is about 300 miles of land in all three communities total that will be covered."
According to Hussman, the upgrade will not cause bills to increase, noting that the reason cable customers see increases is due to television networks raising their prices for programming.
"Bills will not increase because of the investment," said Hussman. "Bills go up on the cable service when our programs like ESPN raise their rates. Honestly, I believe that they would rather not go through us, but to bill all of you individually. I think we may be headed in that direction, but we don't know. We just have to upgrade through the times and keep up."
Hussman said that at this time, no outlying areas are being added to the current service areas, however, that will be looked at for future improvements.
"We are going to look at different areas, but they will not be included in the upgrade we are doing now," said Hussman. "We will be looking at our outlying areas to see what we can do there, but that will not be included in the current upgrade."