Glen Howie, the state’s broadband director (Phillip Davis)

The Arkansas State Broadband Office has submitted its final proposal for the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program after closing the seven-day public comment window Aug. 29.

The state preliminarily selected 23 providers to cover 79,240 location across the state, which the final proposal draft states achieves “coverage for every single location in the state.”

Arkansas’ total BEAD Grant Outlay stands at $308.3 million, $275 million lower than the prior version of the program, which was overhauled in June by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The amount also falls well under the $1.024 billion the state was awarded.

The average grant award per location is $3,889, one of the lowest in the country.

Twenty-two of the 23 selected recipients are below:

Company Name
Amount
Locations
Sub-Projects

Hometown Internet LLC
$88,455,722.48
16,053
10

Aristotle Unified Communications
$68,997,759.13
9,418
18

Brightspeed
$26,279,777.32
13,785
13

Comcast Cable Communications, LLC
$21,894,431.39
3,239
3

Premier Holdings LLC
$20,834,686.52
1,779
5

Texhoma Fiber LLC
$20,015,906.86
1,687
1

CG Computer Works LLC
$14,678,523.95
9,782
15

Northern Arkansas Telephone Company
$12,762,544.57
1,436
4

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
$8,506,344.88
11,178
65

Resound Networks
$5,241,420.51
5,480
34

Windstream Arkansas LLC
$5,009,457.26
1,393
10

WEHCO Video, Inc
$3,592,290.76
832
7

Connect2First Internet
$2,905,597.50
436
2

AT&T
$2,195,790.80
213
5

OzarksGo
$2,125,562.50
322
1

Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services LLC
$1,718,244.10
1,646
25

Decatur Telephone Company
$1,342,472.75
275
1

C & L Broadband Connect, LLC
$965,963.76
85
1

SWATCO
$436,705.90
58
3

Clay County Connect Inc.
$368,885.76
140
3

AREON
$0.00
1
1

Conway Corp
$0.00
2
2

Total
$308,328,088.69
79,240
229

The broadband office’s website only lists 22 selected award recipients, though the office has repeatedly stated it selected 23 internet service providers to receive funds.

Of the selected recipients, 60,386 locations, or 76%, will be served by fiber, 5,480 by licensed fixed wireless, 544 by a mix of fiber and coaxial cable, and six will be served by coaxial cable only. 12,824 locations will be served by low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite technology, which can often be unreliable.

If the plan is approved by NTIA, construction on the BEAD projects is expected to begin in the first half of 2026. NTIA is expected to approve plans by Dec. 4.

“Arkansas is on pace to deliver universal connectivity,” a Monday email from the broadband office stated.

Kinetic Award

In addition to the $5 million Kinetic of Little Rock (listed as Windstream Arkansas LLC) received from Arkansas, the fiber internet provider also received funds from three other states, totaling $156.5 million.

Now a business unit of Uniti of Little Rock, Kinetic received $147.3 million for 49,346 locations from Georgia; $2 million for 280 locations in New Mexico; and $2.3 million for 943 locations in North Carolina.

According to a press release from Kinetic, the company is now expanding and accelerating its fiber broadband build plans following the completion last month of the merger between Windstream and Uniti.

“Extending fiber to 3.5 million locations will cover roughly 75% of Kinetic’s footprint, but we’re not stopping there,” Jeff Small, executive vice president and chief network officer of Kinetic, said in the release. “We believe we can serve additional homes beyond 3.5 million by leveraging new territories adjacent to the Uniti Fiber network now that we are one company.”