Glen Howie (seated in front of laptop at right), Director of the Arkansas State Broadband Office and Project Manager Laurie Ringler (far right also seated) listens to State Representative Danny Watson at Friday's meeting on broadband expansion issues at the First National Bank of Tom Bean Friday afternoon.
Several of Hope’s business and government leaders with other community members got an update Friday afternoon from the Arkansas State Broadband Office (ARConnect) on its priorities for the next few years as it seeks to expand broadband internet access in the state.
To “eliminate the digital divide in Arkansas by 2028,” was stated on a handout given by staff leaders as ARConnect’s goal. The focus will be on “organizing public-private efforts around the three pillars of broadband: access, affordability and digital skills and opportunity.”
Glenn Howie, ARConnect Director, and Laurie Ringler, Project Manager arrived Friday at 3:30 p.m. at the conference room of the Hope branch of the First National Bank of Tom Bean and gave a presentation focusing on the Office’s short and long-term goals as well as advising those present on how to become active themselves in the effort to reduce Hempstead County’s total of 2,800 households underserved (June 2021 numbers from the Federal Communications Commission) by joining a committee in Hempstead County whose charge will be to convey to ARConnect what its people wants regarding broadband services.
Howie began his talk by saying that under the new gubernatorial administration the goal had been set of getting broadband internet service to those currently unable to access it by 2028, making sure the service is affordable and educating citizens in the digital skills needed to use it. This year is designated as a planning year. By August ARConnect will be presenting its infrastructure plan to the federal government and will want that plan and the next submitted plan (on integrating broadband with digital skills teaching) to benefit from feedback from the various county committees.
As of now, about $1 billion in grant funding has been provided in Arkansas to get its broadband access to its present point, Howie said, which has allowed access to 330,000 locations. The most recent FCC map says about 269.000 locations in Arkansas remain without access to ARConnect’s standard of service of at least 100 download and 20 upload Mbps. Currently, as the handout provided by ARConnect says, Hempstead County has 2,800 households underserved. It has three providers that serve 1,013 locations, and one provider of rural service that received a grant and now covers 3,098 locations. The target for 2028, again, is to take the number of locations without access down to zero.
Affordability, Howie says, cannot legally be accomplished by ARConnect ordering providers to stick to a particular price limit. But grants can be awarded on the condition that affordability plans be provided by those vying for the grant. Also, to help cover costs, grant funds are available, based on whether one or members are enrolled in federal and state aid programs, that can substantially discount subscription costs, by paying the discounted amount directly to the provider. Howie said about 2,350 in Hempstead County are estimated as eligible for Affordable Connectivity Program. But so far only 766 have enrolled.
On digital skills, Howie said the estimate from ARConnect is that around 2,250 residents need to upgrade their skills to take advantage of what broadband internet offers. These skills would not include coding or creating a web page but ability to turn on a computer, go to Google or apply for a job. “And we'll get some homework for you that helps us do that a little bit,” Howie said, referring to what a county committee would be given to work on.
At this point, Representative Danny Watson asked why certain households would be left out when workers installed the fiber and hookups to residences. Hempstead County Quorum Court Justice Ed Darling also raised this issue. A local poultry farmer Lonnie Friend, in attendance, had said while introducing himself that his was one of the households left out, while near neighbors now had broadband service.
Howie said the plans submitted by providers had likely left out certain households to prefer installing to more densely populated areas. But that in the future pressure could be exerted on providers to connect more households through adjustment in the terms of the grant or closer scrutiny by state regulatory officials or legislators. He also mentioned the role of the county committee.
“We're talking about forming a voluntary commission on the county level, getting you guys organized. Tell us what you'd like us to do to help them with that … Tell us what issues you want to bubble up to us, which we need to hear. … You know your people best, you know the issues that exist. You know what solutions may work for you,” Howie said.
Later in the meeting he said county committees could also watch to make sure ISPs and contractors were living up to their mandate to expand the accessibility of services to every household. “This is another great example of why county broadband committees are valuable, if we know, or we're told, that a company received funds, and then it's not building out, then if we need to, we may move to sanctions,” Howie said.
Following the presentation, Howie and Ringler answered questions from the attendees which included State Representative Watson, Interim Hope City Manager J.R.Wilson, Hempstead County Justices of the Peace Steve Atchley and Darling, Hope Water and Light Assistant General Manager of Operations Cornelius, Ruralorganizing.org Education Fund representative Sylvia Brown, Arkansas Economic Development Commission’s Dana Poindexter and Director of Industry Outreach at University of Arkansas-Hope Texarkana Akili Moses Israel.
Brown asked whether the next phases of installations would avoid “cherry-picking,” the practice of avoiding installation of the service to lower income households on the theory they are less likely to be able to pay for the service. Howie said in the round of installations coming in the fall, this would be less likely because the state must answer to the federal government under the terms of the Infrastructure Act of 2021 the question of whether low income households and small businesses had broadband available to them. So project plans will be done differently. “The state is going to define them ahead of time and ensure there is no cherry picking going forward,” Howie said.
Wilson asked whether the $30 provided by the feds toward discounts for subscribers to broadband could be used with any broadband ISP and whether the discount is available now. He also asked whether access through phone data service met the standard of being connected to broadband. Howie answered yes the $30 could be used with any broadband ISP and added that many providers have been offering services for $30 a month, rendering the cost for service free. He said high-speed access via phone would not meet the state’s standard for broadband. “It’s hard to apply for a job by phone,” Howie added.
Howie said in the near future a toolkit would be sent to those interested in joining the county broadband committee that would help organize it and set its agenda.
