HOT SPRINGS -- The Spa City has a chicken-and-egg problem, Benjamin Van Wagner, the chairman of the Hot Springs Broadband Leadership Council, told lawmakers on Tuesday.
The city wants to attract technology-related businesses, but it lacks adequate broadband speed, especially in the downtown area, Van Wagner said. At the same time, he said broadband providers can't upgrade their infrastructure without having customers who demand the faster service and are willing to pay for it.
"Broadband isn't going to give you a competitive advantage; it's an absolute requirement," he said. "If we don't have it, we're way behind."
Van Wagner spoke to a legislative panel, the Joint Committee on Advanced Communications and Information Technology, which met at the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce. The committee was formed to find ways to expand broadband service to every home in Arkansas.
Van Wagner asked lawmakers to consider allowing the state to lay fiber-optic cable while it expands U.S. 70 from Hot Springs to Benton, then leasing the line to a private entity.
He said digging once would be cheaper than returning later to run the cable, which transmits information as pulses of light rather than electricity.
Van Wagner was critical of laws that he said prevent local governments from building or providing broadband services. Arkansas law generally prevents local governments from operating that sort of service, but there are exemptions.
"The [Federal Communications Commission] said any of the laws against a municipality entering the market are invalidated, but there is a court challenge to that ruling right now," he said.
Van Wagner said just 9 percent of Garland County residents have access to the federal government's definition of broadband -- 25 megabits per second. About 88 percent of Saline County residents and 94 percent of Pulaski County residents have access to those speeds, Van Wagner said.
Chuck Launius, vice president of Resort Television Cable, said the company offers broadband packages starting at 25 megabits per second and is working to expand into more rural areas.
Resort Television Cable's parent company, WEHCO Media, Inc., also owns the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
"'You build it and they will come' is a tough business proposition," Launius said.
He said it's expensive, difficult and slow to work with power companies to hang cables from telephone poles.
Garland County is the only one of Arkansas' 10 largest counties in which residents ages 65 and older outnumber residents ages 18 and younger, and those demographics mean that the area is less inclined to pay for broadband service, Launius said. That can make expansions less cost-effective.
But Michael Dollar, executive director of the Hot Springs Village Chamber of Commerce, said more recent retirees are demanding Internet service.
Metro on 08/31/2016