Arkansas

Broadband Office

Name: AR State Broadband Office
Location: AR Dept. of Commerce
Enabling Act: A.C.A. § 25-4-125 (2013, amended 2019)

Connectivity Snapshot

Broadband Serviceable Locations 1
Total Served Underserved Unserved

1,355,685

1,046,147

93,921

215,617
Adoption 2
Overall Wireline

85.5%

63.7%

Federal Funding

Summary

BEAD CPF ARPA DE

$1,024,303,994

$158,086,576

$2,552,162,893

$19,830,137

BEAD

Overview

Total Allocation: $1,024,303,994
Current Status: Funding Allocated

Five-Year Plan

Status: Drafted
Due: 9/4/23
Link: 5-Year Plan

Initial Proposal

Status: Unreleased
Due: 12/27/23
Link: n/a

Final Proposal

Status: Unreleased
Due: TBD
Link: n/a

Digital Equity

State Grants

Capacity Grant: $19,830,1373
Planning Grant: $843,673.10
Link to Plan: n/a
Summary of Uses: n/a

NTIA Grant Program

TBD

Middle Mile

No IIJA Middle Mile awardees

ARPA

SLFRF

Total4

$2,552,162,893

For Broadband
$258,299,858 (10.1%)

CPF

Total

$158,086,576

For Broadband
$158,086,576 (100%)
Program Link

State Funding

Recent Programs5

AR Rural Connect

Agency: AR EDC & Broadband Office
Allocation: $550M (as of Feb. 2023)
Grantees: List of grantees through end of 2022; List of Feb. 2023 awardees
Rules: Rules

Policies

Non-Traditional ISPs6

Pemitted to Offer Broadband

Municipalities

Yes (subject to rules)
Municipal Electric Utilities

Yes
Electric Cooperatives

Yes (guardrails)
Investor-Owned Utilities

Yes

Footnotes

  1. FCC National Broadband Map Data, as of December 31, 2022 (updated May 24, 2023).↩︎

  2. ACS 1-Year Data, 2021, US Census Bureau.↩︎

  3. ACLP Overview of IIJA Digital Equity Grant Programs.↩︎

  4. Broadband infrastructure is one of several applicable uses of SLFRF funds.↩︎

  5. Updated as of March 2023.↩︎

  6. Updated as of September 2022.↩︎