Fiber for Breakfast Week 40: Arkansas’s Broadband Momentum 

Fiber for Breakfast Week 40: Arkansas’s Broadband Momentum 

Arkansas entered this decade with a lot of broadband work left to do. In June 2022, about 73% of locations in the state had access to 100/200 Mbps service. By the end of 2025, that number had climbed above 90%, and the state is now preparing for another major wave of construction. 

This week Fiber for Breakfast looked at how Arkansas got there and, more importantly, where it wants to go next. Gary sat down with Glen Howie, Arkansas Broadband Director, to discuss how the state built a highly competitive BEAD program, kept providers engaged through years of changes, and is now preparing to turn awards into construction.  

Arkansas has already been through several rounds of broadband funding. Since 2020, the state has awarded more than $826 million across 298 projects covering 205,000 homes and businesses. Howie said that by the end of this decade, more than 400,000 Arkansas homes and businesses, representing more than one million people, will have gained access to modern broadband speeds for the first time.  

BEAD adds another piece. Arkansas received 730 applications from 33 providers for 77,000 eligible locations. Almost every location received multiple bids, with an average of 3.1 applications per location. The state secured an award for every eligible location, including community anchor institutions, while committing just under $300 million of its $1.024 billion allocation.  

Howie credits much of that result to competition and program design, but also to something much less technical: relationships. “We can’t be effective as a state broadband office if we don’t have providers that are with us and are willing to do the work,” he said. 

That approach became especially important as BEAD changed over time. Arkansas had already completed multiple rounds of bidding when the program was restructured. Rather than wait for providers to decide whether they still wanted to participate, Howie and his team started calling them, asking them to stay engaged and keeping communication open as the rules changed.  

That effort appears to have paid off. Arkansas has executed agreements with every BEAD awardee and is now moving through environmental reviews, with its first notices to proceed expected around late December or early January. The state also reached agreements with both Starlink and Amazon for locations where satellite is part of the solution.  

But Arkansas is already looking beyond the current awards. Howie expects another 12,000 to 18,000 locations could surface through the supplemental BEAD cleanup process as maps change, new homes are built, and previous commitments fall away. The state has already begun mapping where those locations sit in relation to existing projects, so it can determine where extensions or new project areas may make sense.  

Then comes the bigger question: what happens with the remaining funding? 

Howie outlined a layered approach. First, finish the cleanup and connect as many remaining locations as possible. From there, Arkansas wants to explore how funding could support AI adoption across government and the private sector. A third priority, which the state is calling “Backbone Arkansas,” could include middle-mile infrastructure at commercial sites.  

That is where the conversation moves beyond BEAD. Arkansas is not treating universal connectivity as simply getting a drop to every home. Howie also pointed to affordability, digital skills, and the need to build networks that can scale as technology changes.  

The goal, he said, is “universal connection to reliable, high-speed internet.” But getting there also means making sure people can use that connection effectively and affordably, while building infrastructure ready for whatever comes next.  

Arkansas is getting closer to the end of the access problem. The opportunity now is to make sure the infrastructure being built becomes a foundation for economic development, public safety, AI, and the next generation of technology across the state. 

Click here to watch the full interview, brought to you by Amdocs.  

Click here to download the slides.