A more than $2.5 million grant from the Arkansas Rural Connect program will help to improve high speed internet service in Desha County, according to the McGehee-Dermott Times-News newspaper.
In a Sept. 23 story, the newspaper reported that the county will partner with Aristotle Unified Communication to engineer the new fixed wireless technology to homes and businesses.
The Arkansas Rural Connect program received $119 million from the federal Coronavirus Relief and Economic Recovery (CARES) Act earlier this year.
The newspaper quoted Elizabeth Bowles, CEO of Aristotle as saying the grant will enable the company to work with Desha County officials to bring expanded broadband capabilities to previously unserved and underserved areas.
Bowles said an unserved area means that 80 percent of the community doesn’t have access to internet speeds of 25.3 Mbps and an underserved area may have providers who say they offer that but in reality, it’s not available a large majority of the time.
In the newspaper story, Bowles said the company will work with Desha County Judge Richard Tindall and other county and city officials to assist with rights of way and accessing city and county owned properties during construction.
Some area of the county are expected to have access to the service by the end of the year and the rest within six months, Bowles said.
