© 2024 Red River Radio
Voice of the Community
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Arkansas Gov Announces Rural High-Speed Broadband Plans

Courtesy: Chuck Smith / Red River Radio News

ARKANSAS RURAL BROADBAND - Arkansas' governor has released a plan to expand access to high-speed broadband  to rural communities.  During his weekly webstreamed  address  from his office in Little Rock,  Gov. Asa Hutchinson  explained  some details about the Arkansas State Broadband plan.

"The goal of the plan is to provide high-speed broadband to every area of the state with a population of at least 500 people by 2022.," Hutchinson said. "This is ambitious but doable. The standard is 25/3, which means we will provide internet at the speed of 25 megabits per second for downloading data and 3 megabits per second for uploading."

The  broadband speeds  mean users can download a song in one second, or download a two-hour movie in about 10 minutes.  Hutchinson’s plan  calls  for  establishing a state broadband office, to help citizens, companies and municipalities use federal grants to expand  broadband infrastructure and connectivity in rural Arkansas.

TO READ THE PLAN, CLICK THIS LINK: Arkansas Broadband Plan

Chuck Smith brings more than 30 years' broadcast and media experience to Red River Radio. He began his career as a radio news reporter and transitioned to television journalism and newsmagazine production. Chuck studied mass communications at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia and motion picture / television production at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has also taught writing for television at York Technical College in Rock Hill, South Carolina and video / film production at Centenary College of Louisiana, Shreveport.