Most of County Eligible for Fiber Optic Broadband

RISON - A new map released through the Arkansas State Broadband Office this week shows that much of Cleveland County is already eligible to receive grant money to provide high-speed fiber optic internet service to those areas that currently do not have access to it.However, the Cleveland County Broadband Committee is still investigating the status of eligibility for an area around New Edinburg.This week, the State Broadband Office released its Arkansas Broadband Map using color coded dots to show which locations are eligible for grant funding. The map can be found online at https://register.broadband.arkansas.gov/register/bead/map Last year, the state was awarded more than $1 billion in federal Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) funding to improve internet access to "unserved" or "underserved" areas of the state. That funding is being disbursed through the Arkansas State Broadband Office.Being declared "unserved" means a location does not have access to any wired internet service. Being declared "underserved" means the speeds available through a wired connection at that location do not meet the meet FCC minimum of what is considered high speed internet: at least 25 Mbps (megabytes per second) download speed and at least 3 Mbps upload speed.Britt Talent, who co-chairs the Cleveland County Broadband Committee with Justice of the Peace Donnie Herring, said this latest map indicates that nearly the entire county outside the cities of Kingsland and Rison is eligible for grant money to bring high speed internet service to those locations.Most of the grants being awarded through the state will be for installing fiber optic cable, which is capable of moving data at speeds of 100 Mbps or faster.Talent said this latest map accurately reflects where Rally Network installed high-speed fiber optic service to customers in and around both Kingsland and Rison last year. However, he said it also reflects those areas outside of ...