C&L Broadband Connecting First Customers

RISON - C&L Broadband Connect, the fiber optic internet service being offered through the C&L Electric Cooperative, recently began connecting its first customers in Cleveland County to the new high-speed service.Meanwhile, Cleveland County Judge Jimmy Cummings announced during Monday night's Cleveland County Quorum Court meeting that a contractor for Little Rock-based Aristotle Unified Communications was beginning to install underground fiber optic cable along Cross Road north of Kingsland. He said the high-speed internet service will eventually be available to the southwest corner of the county, including the New Edinburg area.Kingsland and Rison are currently the only areas within the county that have access to fiber optic internet service. That service is provided through Rally Networks.Unlike DSL internet signals that use existing copper telephone lines to transmit a signal, fiber optic cable allows a signal to travel the full length of the line at the same speed, regardless of how far it is from the source. With DSL, on the other hand, the signal fades the farther away it is away from the source.A map on the C&L Broadband Connect website shows the service is now available in an area along Hwy. 63 in eastern Cleveland County, extending from an area just north of the Hwy. 114 intersection at Calmer south to about Neely Loop south of the Hwy. 35/11 intersection at Pansy. The service extends both east and west of Hwy. 63 to include the Calmer, Rowell, Pansy and Herbine communities. Meanwhile, that same map shows a large area of northern Cleveland County extending roughly from east of the Saline River and south of the Jefferson County line as being "under construction." That "under construction" area includes Rison, Staves, Kedron, Pleasant Ridge, Randall, Woodlawn and the Oak Grove area.In addition, the map also shows that locations around the Rye area are under construction.The map also indicates a large are...