Rally Gets $35 Million for Fiber Optic

RISON - Cleveland County Telephone, the lone telephone and internet service provider for the county, has been awarded more than $35 million in federal funding to bring fiber optic broadband internet service to its service area within Cleveland and surrounding counties.U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Dec. 18 that more than $313 million in funding had been issued through USDA's ReConnect program to connect rural residents, farmers and business owners in 18 states to reliable high-speed internet.The ReConnect Program is specifically designed to fund the most difficult high-speed internet projects in the nation, which are in the most rural, remote and unserved communities. According to data provided by the Arkansas State Broadband Office, Cleveland County had the highest number of underserved/unserved locations in Southeast Arkansas.The only recipient in Arkansas to receive ReConnect funding was Cleveland County Telephone, which is a subsidiary of Rally Networks. Cleveland County Telephone received a $17,850,732 grant and a matching $17,850,732 loan to expand its high-speed fiber optic network in the county. Arkansas Senators John Boozman and Tom Cotton along with Fourth District Congressman Bruce Westerman and First District Congressman Rick Crawford served as sponsors of Cleveland County Telephone's application.The company currently offers fiber optic service to the cities of Rison and Kingsland. Those services have download speeds of up to 2 gigabytes (2,000 megabytes).According a new release from USDA, the funding will benefit 3,974 people, 56 businesses, 88 farms and six educational facilities in Cleveland, Bradley,Drew, Grant, Jefferson and Lincoln counties.Ken Gross, customer relations manager for Rally Networks, said the new funding will bring fiber optic internet service to areas of the county currently served by Cleveland County Telephone. Currently, Cleveland County Telephone c...