ARKANSAS, USA — A recent study shows that Arkansas is the number 1 state in the nation for gains in broadband access over the past four years.
From online learning to telehealth visits, people are using the internet at home more and more often, and many Arkansans, especially in rural areas, are not able to use these resources because they don’t have access to broadband.
That’s what the Arkansas State Broadband Office has been working to address, and the results of a recent study show progress.
The study by Hosting Advice revealed that Arkansas has seen a 9% increase in broadband access across the state over the past 4 years, with close to 120,000 new connections.
Of all the counties in Arkansas, Benton County had the most gains.
State broadband director Glen Howie said there is more than one reason for that growth.
“It's one of the fastest-growing areas of the state, one of the economic powerhouse engines of the state, but surprisingly, some of the greatest need,” Howie said. “Actually, if you get off of the interstate corridor and you go east or west, there are a lot of folks who still have no connection at all, or the connection they do have is very poor, so it's been an area of focus.”
Howie said the statewide growth over the past four years is largely thanks to state and federal grants and private investments from internet service providers (ISPs).
“There are about 1.36 million locations in Arkansas: homes, businesses, community anchor institutions like schools and libraries and police stations and hospitals,” Howie said.
“Of those, about 350,000 locations across the state have been subject to a grant award, either through our office at the state level or other federal grants, and there have been hundreds of thousands of locations that have also been built out through private investment in our ISPs because they know that this is a critical issue that they have to handle.”
While the gains seen over the last four years are encouraging, Howie said the work is far from over. There are still 78,500 locations across the state that need broadband access.
The next round of infrastructure grants that will go toward those locations is planned to roll out in October.
Howie said to ensure Arkansans are as connected as possible, it is also important to consider affordability and digital opportunity with the same sense of urgency as building out the broadband.
“We can make Arkansas the most wired state in the country [and] run fiber to every single location in the state, but some of our folks can't afford it,” Howie said.
“That's an issue that we have to attack and keep working on. Likewise, we can run fiber for folks. We can make it free for people, hypothetically, but if they don't have the proper digital devices to take advantage of it or the digital skills to operate those devices properly … we have to attack that as well.”
Howie said federal programs like the Lifeline Program can help people with the cost of high-speed internet. In addition to bringing the cost down, he said it’s also important for people to be educated on what resources high-speed internet can bring to their lives.
“We try to keep sight of our mission every day,” Howie said. “That is helping the grandmother who's down in Hope who needs to see her cancer specialist via telehealth services. It's a rice farmer over in Stuttgart who needs to increase his crop yields using advanced technology. It is the little second grader in the Bella Vista area who doesn't have to go to the Walmart parking lot anymore to do his homework; he can actually be at home with his parents at the kitchen table.”
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