The Arkansas State Broadband Office, also known as ARConnect, completed its third and final competitive bidding round for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program.
ARConnect announced the development Thursday afternoon. It has worked with broadband working groups such as one in Jefferson County to gather information on where broadband internet service is needed most and how to help train younger and older people on digital skills.
ARConnect Director Glen Howie said Arkansas has preliminarily selected bids that cover 99% of the state’s locations eligible for broadband service through a “rigorous, phased approach and robust provider competition.” The internet service providers, or ISPs, selected to receive funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration may be announced within the next couple of months, he said.
Homes eligible for service from the selected ISPs are capable of receiving download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and sending upload speeds of at least 20 mbps. It was revealed in March that Cablelynx, Logix Communications, Optimum, Rally Networks and Ritter Communications’ RightFiber are among the ISPs that applied for infrastructure grants.
“As the state moves forward and we’re able to announce the ISPs, it’s our hope the broadband working groups will form good working relationships with providers and be a layer of accountability for providers,” Howie said. “The broadband working groups can serve as a filter for us and let us know if things are going great or not going great.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Retired Army Col. Nate Todd is a facilitator for the Jefferson County broadband working group, which has met monthly since March.
“Several of the counties stood up broadband working groups about two years ago, and we saw that we didn’t have that,” Todd said. “Through this working group, the ISPs have talked about their plans for serving our residents.”
ARConnect stated 2,697 total bids in Arkansas have been received across 44 different providers, with 880 of them selected preliminarily across 32 providers. Almost 83,000 locations were selected, representing 99% of all eligible locations.
The total allocated outlay is $585.3 million, for a $7,072 average grant request per location. Of those selected locations, 89% will be served by fiber, and 5.3 bids have been made per eligible location on average.
ARConnect said in a statement the state is “well-positioned to finalize selections for the remaining 1% of locations” and submit a final proposal to the NTIA ahead of schedule. Howie said residents should expect to see “shovels in the ground” to begin the broadband projects by the end of the year, with the intent to have each project completed within two years.
“There are a lot of steps in the process,” he said. “The feds have to sign off on the projects, the General Assembly has to sign off on the projects, and we have to sign agreements with the ISPs. We remain steadfast in our mission to connect the unconnected.”
Meanwhile in Jefferson County, the local broadband working group is offering digital skills training from 9:45 a.m.-2 p.m. June 6 at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff STEM building.
Todd said slots are still open for middle school students and adults 50 and older who need digital skills training. Lunch will be provided.
The training is a service of UAPB, Cablelynx and The Generator. Todd asked those interested to call The Generator at (870) 663-0200.