ARConnect meeting held in Hope
HOPE – ARConnect, the Arkansas State Broadband Office. met Friday, February 17th at First National Bank of Tom Bean. The meeting was led by Glen Howie, the director of the office. He started off by stating that the Office is part of the Arkansas Commerce Department. He stated that the goal is to eliminate the digital divide by 2028. The infrastructure plan has to be given to the federal government by August and the digital skills and opportunity by November. Howie said it’s not simply an infrastructure issue but also an affordability and skills issue.
The point was made that Arkansas has been last in the nation for broadband connection. Rural areas will be targeted as well as veterans, prisoners soon to be released, those with a language barrier, and those over age 60. Howie stated that 87.4 percent of the population of Arkansas falls in one of these categories. Every county in the state will be expected to put together a plan to achieve full coverage.
For the state there are 137,000 households covered and a total of 607,000 households eligible. A total of 274,000 households lack digital skills.
In Hempstead County alone there are around 2800 households under-served. An estimated 2350 households are eligible for assistance through the Affordable Connectivity Program.
It was said at the meeting that some people lack even the skills to turn on a computer or use a mouse let alone paying a bill online.
The new plan won’t allow ISPs (Internet Service Providers)to draw projects anymore. The projects will be smaller, possibly as many as 300 of them and the requirement that all households in the plan are covered. There is also a push to get households covered more quickly.
There has been an issue of areas already covered by grants couldn’t be double funded so areas which had received grants already but the provider was taking time to cover it and it couldn’t be covered by another organization to get coverage more quickly.
The desire was expressed to use broadband to address issues such as food deserts, health issues, and small business needs.