Grants set to improve broadband

— Connect Arkansas will receive $7.8 million in federal funding to improve the state’s broadband infrastructure and to encourage more Arkansans to take advantage of the resource.

The organization will receive two grants, one through the Sustainable Broadband Adoption program for $3.7 million, and one through the State Broadband Data and Development program for $4.1 million. Both programs are administered by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

C. Sam Walls III, president of Connect Arkansas, said the money will allow the state to continue implementing programs and develop new ones, but “it is by no means all that will be required.”

“The initial thinking was this was something you went out and were able to fix in three years, four years, declare victory and be done,” he said. But “the technology itself is changing so rapidly it’s extremely difficult to keep up.”

In 2008, Arkansas was ranked 49th in the country for broadband access by the State New Economy Index, which measures how states stack up in a variety of technology and entrepreneurship categories. The index was created by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, whose mission is to support entrepreneurship.

The data grant will help the organization, a private nonprofit that is helping to coordinate and implement the state’s broadband plan, continue the mapping and data collection it began in 2009 using a $2 million grant.

Connect Arkansas released second-generation maps of statewide broadband availability in May and plans to release an interactive version that will allow users to search the Internet by address within the next three weeks.

The grant also includes funds for 17 counties to increase adoption efforts and develop websites.

The $3.7 million grant focuses on encouraging broadband adoption, including funding for computers for children and entrepreneurial education in poor counties.

This grant will include $823,000 for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to train employees to use “telehealth” technology.

UAMS received $102 million from the Commerce Department to build a highspeed Internet network to connect doctors and medical students in rural areas to researchers and universities across the state.

Walls said that while broadband availability is a particular problem in rural areas, broadband technology is not being used enough in areas across the state.

“Utilization is not just a rural issue. You’ve got people who live in west Little Rock who do not utilize this technology.”

Mark McElroy, county judge of Desha County, has worked with Connect Arkansas to improve broadband adoption in his county. The big challenge, he said, is a lack of awareness that broadband is available in the area.

“We’re not able to get the Toyota plants or the big companies down here for employment, but broadband opens the door. It puts rural Desha County on Main Street, New York,” he said. “This is like a four-lane highway to us.”

Business, Pages 27 on 09/29/2010

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