Residents share need for reliable Internet in SFC
Service provider says current grant stipulations make expansion unlikely
St. Francis County residents without broadband may not be getting it anytime soon, even with state grants available to help providers reach underserved areas.
During a broadband meeting at Forrest City City Hall on Monday, Bill Coleman, a consultant with the Benton Institute, offered an update on the current and future broadband funding opportunities from the state.
"Some areas of the county are now included in possible project areas in a current grant round from the Arkansas Office of Broadband Development," said Coleman, who suggested mayors with local broadband providers to improve their chances of obtaining grant funds.
Forrest City Mayor Cedric Williams expressed a dire need for affordable broadband services for not only Forrest City but all of St. Francis County.
"With the way the world works now, we could have our residents living here and working from home for companies in other areas and states," said Williams.
Williams turned the floor over to Glynis Lynch, who explained that most of her children moved away due to getting jobs that required access to reliable and affordable broadband services and that most of her children couldn’t visit due to needing broadband for work purposes.
Forrest City Fire Chief Shane Dallas shared that due to a lack of reliable broadband at his home, he had to finish his bachelor’s degree online by utilizing the Internet in town.
"We have nothing in Hughes," added Butch Murray, who shared that she and her husband pay two service providers with hopes that one would be working when needed. "I'm a Master Gardener and so many of our meetings are done over Zoom now and it is terrible."
Dallas also reiterated the need for affordable service.
"At our home we get 30 down (megabytes) for $90," Dallas explained of the data for his service. "It gets frustrating because my son gets 500 for $40 where he lives. We are paying an extreme amount for barely any speed."
"That is also important," Williams agreed on the affordability aspect. "We've said before that if the internet isn't affordable, you might as well not have it."
Edward Gregory, water department manager, said his father lives in a rural part of the county and needs broadband for much of his VA Hospital transactions as well as shopping.
Gregory also explained that due to employees in the water department not having reliable broadband, the department suffered during Covid because employees were not able to work from home when sickness hit.
Williams also explained that those who were to receive Covid relief during the pandemic had issues applying for that relief due to all applications being online.
"They couldn't get paper applications," said Williams. "From a technology standpoint, we are only going forward, we aren't going back."
Williams also pointed out much of the Census needed Internet, as well, before opening the floor back to Coleman for his presentation.
Coleman provided maps and data for previous and current broadband expansion grant funding.
He told residents and providers at the meeting that there are no wired providers in rural St. Francis County areas.
Coleman also explained sections were auctioned off based on Census blocks, individually at first, and that those from disqualified areas and areas under review were not placed back into possible funded projects for the new state broadband expansion plan. "You still have project areas all across the county in need of services," he said.
Coleman also provided data on costs per Census blocks to bring wired services to certain area with lows being as much as $500 per household and highs reaching over $30,000 per household in the more rural areas.
However, according to East Arkansas Cable Company representatives Chris Heard and Tony Allen who attended the meeting, this grant cycle was not as simple as applying for funding.
Allen said that even though there was possible grant funding for such services, it was unlikely to happen due to rule changing from the last auction.
"The last time we had the broadband association do this, the rules were a little bit different," said Allen.
He said last time, providers could pick and choose areas that would be of most benefit to them, such as extending it to certain cities. "This time, you have to cover all of St. Francis County, which can get a little rough," he added.
He explained the service provider under the new rules would have to cover all the listed project areas even for areas with just one house, that may or may not pay for East Arkansas Video's service in the end and be too costly for the company.
"So, if a customer doesn't take this, I still have 100 poles worth of rental I have to pay for without having a customer out there," said Allen. "We have to look at everything on that part."
Allen did agree that the Internet is becoming a huge part of resident's livelihood.
"We are hoping more avenues open up where we can expand also," said Allen.
"The grant is all or none," Coleman agreed, saying it was a noticeable issue for other areas of Arkansas as well. "And the grant deadline is coming up pretty soon, so there will be a need to get this work done. It is an opportunity for providers."
Coleman also suggested service providers look into partnerships to get the areas covered.
Allen and Heard again stated that EAV looked at several of the project areas already but due to the new rules it wasn't a viable grant for their company to seek.
“We'd have to build far west and far east and we have no way to recoup our costs," said Allen. "I think the Arkansas Broadband Association needs to take another look because you see how far those areas are trying to get from east to west, and it is just astronomical cost wise."
Allen said it is the company’s hope that the grant cycles go back to previous rules where providers choose specific points in project areas to provide service.
He also said he is unsure how partnering with other service providers would work.
Coleman said it is a shame the area will be missing out on this round of funding, but it was a choice the state made to change the auction and the providers would have to abide by that.
Coleman suggested the county create a team and have people survey their communities to go ahead and possibly work with service providers to apply for a grant in the next cycle.
"Put together a team that will really try to dig into this process and for those partnerships with cities and counties and the dollars they would put in, in addition to state dollars. There is going to be a lot of state and federal money coming, and this fund now in place is federal money from the capital investment fund. Try to be ready and drive your own futures because there isn't a way for a provider to build on an area. I think you guys will have to work more than that especially with trying to get providers you like," said Coleman. "Are there any broadband efforts happening right now?"
"We are doing Goodwin and Wheatley," said Heard, who again said EAV is not applying for the new funding due to not having services offered in areas such as Hughes.
"So your problem with this isn't the money, it is that you don't provide service in certain areas?" Lynch asked Allen.
"It's both. The money they have allotted wouldn't take me from east to west," responded Allen, adding it would cost more than the allotted amount to bring services into areas they don't offer services at all.
Dallas asked if service providers could employ lobbyists to lobby at legislative sessions to get the all-or-nothing rule fixed.
Allen said EAV has lobbyists who "stayed on top of" sessions to get changes made when it was possible.
"I think our biggest problem is we've tried all this a couple of different times and everyone is getting tired of trying," said Lynch. "But, I think at this point we don't want to give up. Is anybody willing to get together to get our committee formed and work towards getting all of us service?"
Dallas said it would be important to note the issues faced by service providers.
"I encourage you to work on this as a group, get the right people in the county, cities, school districts and broadband providers involved, and stress and maximize the value of these grants," said Coleman, who then introduced Dr. Kristy Carter.
Carter, an associate of Coleman's and an independent researcher with the Arkansas Black Mayors Association, said she realizes it is frustrating work. "It is frustrating for us too," she said. "But we are here to help."
Carter also noted that there would be a challenge period soon for the funding and they would be available to help communities any way they could to challenge issues with the grant.
"We've been really hands on with this entire process," said Carter. "To Mayor Williams’s point, broadband is really an economic indicator now and it is really starting to become if you do not have broadband, it definitely impacts the quality of life."
"You have been tremendous partners in helping us with this journey. It seems we now have our marching orders and a direction to move to continue this conversation, " said Williams. "A lot of the county jobs are dependent on Forrest City and we are dependent on the county, so it is beneficial for all of us to join together to continue this broadband journey."