Glenn Howie, the director of Arkansas Broadband Office made clear the need for urgency. Only 14 days remain for Arkansans to review a map produced by his office to make corrections if the map does not accurately reflect the state of their access to broadband internet service, meaning at least 100 megabytes per second downloading and 20 megabytes per second uploading.
Howie emphasized that the deadline for the sending of corrections to the ABO is April 18th. By that point residents and businesses who either lack internet service entirely or are unsatisfied with their service need to visit the broadband map site, check their address on the map to see whether or not it is labeled correctly with one of four dots and send in corrections if the labelling is not correct. A link is provided on the map page to send in corrections.
As Howie described it, red or blue dots are good news for those lacking broadband standard internet. “In that scenario, where they have nothing, or what they do have is very substandard, their location shows up as red or blue. That's good news, because that means later this year, our team has a billion dollars funding that we're going to have access to. We're going to award grants later this year to ISPs [internet service providers] to go build out broadband for those folks.”
Red and blue dots on the map label the location as one where a new grant would be pending for an ISP in the location. Green dots mean a grant has already been awarded to an ISP in the location. Grey dots mean an ISP has said the location has broadband internet.
Those whose locations show grey dots and find the internet service they are paying for insufficient can run tests on their connection using the ABO’s site. The ABO recommends that Arkansans run three tests on three different days. If the tests find the internet connection provides less than the 100 mbps/20 mbps standard for broadband service, a correction can be sent in along with a photo of the internet bill as proof of internet service subscription.
Nevada County residents who lack sufficient broadband service, or cannot access any service at all, can contact the Prescott Economic Development Office at 1-870-887-6208 or Nevada County Treasurer Ricky Reyenga at 1-870-887-2811.
Howie said the stop in Prescott was the fourth of the day for he and his two staffers who had just made the trip from Camden. The Broadband Road Show so far this year has visited 19 counties.
