Ritter Communications, a regional telecommunications provider, began work Tuesday on an $8 million state-of-the-art data storage facility on the company's Jonesboro campus.
The 8,882-square-foot Ritter Communications Data Center will serve customers throughout the mid-South, the company said in a news release.
The facility is part of a trend to moving information-technology infrastructure into multiuser facilities for businesses "to manage their IT environments more efficiently and effectively," said Alan Morse, Ritter's president.
When completed by mid-2020, the facility will enhance economic development in the region and no longer require companies to look to Memphis, Little Rock or St. Louis to access a world-class facility, he said.
"When companies consider our region for expansion or relocation, they want to see fiber-optic data connectivity and secure data center facilities," Morse said.
Ritter Communications, founded in 1906 in Marked Tree, serves 89 communities and more than 45,000 customers in parts of Arkansas, Missouri and Tennessee.
-- Noel Oman