State Estimates $18 Million for Broadband

MONTICELLO - The Arkansas State Broadband Office projects that Cleveland County could receive more than $18 million in grant money to install fiber optic broadband to "unserved" or "under-served" locations in the county.Glen Howie, director of the Arkansas State Broadband office, revealed the projected grant figures during a regional update he gave on the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program last Friday at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. The meeting was for local broadband initiatives in Cleveland, Drew, Bradley, Desha, Ashley and Chicot counties.Arkansas has been awarded more than $1 billion through the federal BEAD program to expand broadband internet service to homes and businesses across the state that currently do not have access to wired high-speed broadband internet service. In March, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to define broadband internet speed as being 100 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 20 Mbps for uploads. Previously, the speeds were 25 Mbps for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads.Howie said in previous meetings that the State Broadband Office will give preference to those internet service providers willing to install fiber optic cable to provide the internet service.In addition to County Judge Jimmy Cummings and Cleveland County Broadband Committee Co-Chair Britt Talent attending the meeting, representatives from some of the internet service providers interested in pursuing grants to provide service in Cleveland County were also attendance.Bruce Grubb, local manager for the Rison office of Rally Net-works, and David Vondran, the CEO for the C&L Electric Cooperative, were in attendance. Rally Network recently installed fiber optic cable to provide broadband service in Rison and Kingsland. Also, Elizabeth Bowles, chairman and CEO of Aristotle Unified Communications, Inc., was at the meeting. Aristotle was previously awarded a different grant to provide hig...