The Arkansas State Broadband Office has released a new map that shows levels of broadband access across the Natural State and will launch on Wednesday a process for stakeholders to challenge its accuracy.
Glen Howie, state broadband director, said the release of the map and challenge process mark "first-time-ever" developments for Arkansas.
"For the first time in the state's history, a resident can go to the state broadband map and find out their broadband story for their individual location," Howie said.
The Natural State has historically struggled to keep pace with others in terms of broadband connectivity. A report published in December by BroadbandNow lists Arkansas as ranking 49th in the nation, including Washington, D.C., in terms of internet access. According to Howie, about 115,000 locations in Arkansas, from homes to businesses and such community anchor institutions as libraries, hospitals, schools and fire or police stations either do not have any internet access or have substandard access. These locations also haven't been issued grants already through either the state office or federal grant programs that are outside the office's control.
Broadband has a minimum download speed of 100 megabits per second, and a minimum upload speed of 20 megabits per second, the director said.
The map, which shows a total of roughly 1.3 million locations across the state, is unique in the level at which information is reported. Previously, broadband maps were based on census block groups, Howie said. According to the director, that meant if a single location was reported as served by an internet service provider to the Federal Communications Commission, the entire block surrounding that location was marked as "served."
"Until now, all the maps were based on the [census block groups], so it by default and by definition would leave people out," Howie said. "Because if a block was served then it wasn't eligible for a grant, and there was no real telling how many people weren't served in any one block."
The ability to challenge what the map shows marks another critical first in the state's efforts to expand broadband access.
The months-long Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) mapping challenge process is meant to help ensure "we don't leave anybody out" in the state's ongoing efforts to expand residents' ability to get quality internet, according to the director.
Those eligible to challenge the map include local governments, nonprofits and internet service providers, a news release from the State Broadband Office states. However, they must submit evidence of the inaccuracies.
People who don't fall into those categories but wish to suggest a correction should visit the Internet Performance Data Collection Tool.
"The Arkansas State Broadband Office has worked to allow everyday Arkansans the ability to have their voices heard in the months leading up to the mapping challenge," the release states.
The challenge process is being conducted before the state awards broadband infrastructure grants.
The BEAD program provides $42.45 billion to the nation "to expand broadband access, fund deployment and mapping, and address affordability and digital skills needs," according to the release. It is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which announced last June that Arkansas would receive $1,024,303,993.86 in BEAD funding to improve access to quality internet.
The tentative timeline for the challenge process is:
March 12: User guide and location listings posted online; portal registration begins;
March 20: Challenge portal opens; challenges accepted for 30 days;
April 19: Challenge rebuttals accepted for 30 days;
May 19: Challenge adjudication begins;
June 17: Challenge process concludes.
Residents can access the new broadband map and challenge portal system by visiting broadband.arkansas.gov. The site also offers a user guide and additional resources, including a new speed test application. Anyone with questions can email the State Broadband Office at [email protected].
Many counties, especially those in rural areas, face a difficult battle for broadband access. Independence, Newton and Polk counties are among those facing the greatest challenges.
There are about 180,000 unserved homes in Arkansas, according to ARConnect's five-year action plan, published last August. The agency said that figure, which came from the FCC's National Broadband Map, is lower than the number of unserved sites in Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Missouri.
As of August, the State Broadband Office's grant program had taken strides toward reducing these gaps by awarding nearly $550 million across 185 projects, according to the agency. Those projects aim to connect 130,000 homes and businesses.
In June, the Biden administration announced that federal officials had allocated more than $1 billion for high-speed internet services in Arkansas as part of a multibillion-dollar nationwide grant program.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the state Broadband Office aim to eliminate the state's digital divide by 2028, "connecting every single home, business and community anchor institution to affordable, reliable high-speed internet," the agency states in the overview of its action plan.
Howie said the State Broadband Office was "very proud" of its grant program designs.
"We think it's one of the best in the country, and if we operate it the right way, there's the scenario where we have money left over, and then we can impact people's lives even further."
The office is also gearing up for its next "roadshow," in which they visit counties across the state to discuss broadband expansion. They went on a similar journey last year, visiting each of the state's counties. As a result, nearly two thirds of the counties sent in a list of county broadband committee members."
"You may have had some states visit every county; not a whole lot, and if they did I guarantee you they don't have two thirds of their communities that have formed broadband committees," he said. "I would put up our stakeholder engagement up against every state in the country."