FCC announced thousands of rural Arkansans will gain high-speed broadband

The Federal Communications Commission announced Monday that an estimated 388,000 rural Arkansans will gain access to high-speed broadband through the Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction.
Winning bids for Howard County includes six thousand seven hundred seventy three dollars to Altice USA, Inc., which is the parent company of Nashville cable & internet provider, Suddenlink.Communications. Howard County bids were also awarded to the Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium in the amount of 6.77 million dollars, over 2 thousand 800 dollars was given to the Space X company, and Windstream was awarded a bid of 43 thousand dollars for internet improvements within its service area in the county.

Two bids were awarded in Pike County. The Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium was a bid winner at 5.32 million dollars, while Windstream will be provided nearly 167 thousand dollars for broadband upgrades within their service area of Pike County.
Only one bid was presented in Hempstead County. Rural Electric was given a bid of 6.56 million dollars for internet upgrades.

Winning bidders have ten years to complete the entire project, with 40 percent of the service upgrades being completed within a three year period.

The federal monies awarded this week are in addition to funds already presented this year for broadband improvements. Several areas of Howard & Hempstead counties should have better internet by the end of this month.