More than 20 telecommunications companies have submitted bids to help provide high-speed broadband to school districts across the state. It's a victory for state officials who had made previous attempts to persuade companies to sign on to the project.
The companies will convert the Arkansas Public School Computer Network from antiquated copper wire to high-speed, fiber-optic cable, which will transmit information via pulses of light rather than electricity. The work will connect school districts to central high-speed Internet hubs.
Connecting school districts to those Internet hubs will cost $49 million, and the federal government will reimburse schools for up to 99 percent of that cost, said Janet Wilson, public information coordinator for the Arkansas Department of Information Systems.
Lack of high-speed access has started causing problems at schools as more standardized tests are moved to online formats. Also, Act 1280 of 2013 requires that every school district provide at least one interactive online course.
Jonesboro-based Ritter Communications is connecting about 75 school district hubs -- more than any other provider -- at a cost of about $12 million.
"There's a new spirit of cooperation," said Alan Morse, president of Ritter Communications. "We feel good that the [bidding] process worked and schools are going to get connected really quickly."
Morse said his company is figuring out which districts have underutilized capacity, whether unused fiber cabling has been laid and where new cables have to be added.
"There's much more fiber around the state than maybe what information was circulating last summer and fall would indicate," he said. "We'll be exploring that first."
AT&T is serving about 60 districts for $6.8 million, Windstream will serve 26 at a cost of $6.4 million, and Cox Communications will serve 25 for $6 million.
On the other hand, Hampton-based South Arkansas Telephone Co. is serving one district, at a cost of $178,000.
Morse said the cost per district depends on how much fiber cable needs to be laid and on the terrain. It's easier to lay cable in the Delta than in the rocky northwest portion of the state, for example.
"The cost is almost proportional to the length of the fiber to serve these schools," he said.
Improvements to the Arkansas Public School Computer Network are scheduled to begin in July. Most school districts plan to be connected to the improved network by the end of the 2015-16 school year. The new Arkansas Public School Computer Network should be fully implemented by July 2017.
Only two school districts didn't receive a bid from a service provider -- Cleveland County School District and Woodlawn School District -- both based in Rison, roughly 25 miles southwest of Pine Bluff.
Johnnie Johnson, superintendent of Cleveland County School District, said modern fiber-optic cabling was laid to the elementary and high school in Rison, but reaching the elementary school in Kingsland -- a 15-minute drive southwest -- was prohibitively expensive in the past.
"But I guess if that's what we have to do, that's what we're going to do," he said.
Wilson said the Arkansas Department of Information Systems is working with the telephone company, TDS Telecom, to ensure that every school in the county receives upgraded service.
Andrew Petersen, a spokesman for TDS Telecom, said the company's sales team was willing to work with the district to devise a plan for extending the service.
Though it will cost about $49 million to get service from hubs into districts around the state, it could cost millions more for districts to upgrade or build internal networking for each school to get faster service.
Telecommunications companies bid an additional $51 million to provide intradistrict connections, but many schools already have those connections in place -- and do not need additional services. And 38 schools did not receive bids.
The total cost for those services is unknown at this point, Wilson said. She said paying those costs is the responsibility of the districts, but they would be eligible for federal reimbursement.
Though the bids have been awarded, the bidding process wasn't without several setbacks.
The Arkansas Department of Education put out the first call for bids Dec. 5. The department asked telecommunications companies to connect to one of eight hubs in nine regions.
The Education Department's bid request "includes a regional bidding component that requires companies to bid on providing service to an entire region of the state. Service providers will tell you that will result in higher costs for those services," Evan Marwell, chief executive officer of EducationSuperHighway, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in early December.
"Regional bidding excludes smaller providers who are too small to bid on an entire region but could have provided the service for a smaller geographic area maybe at a lower cost. The state said [the regional approach] is the only way they can ensure all of the districts get service ... but we don't actually believe that."
The Education Department's bid request was later scrapped, and the Department of Information Systems put out a new bid Feb. 9, records show.
"It was the governor's decision to move it from [the Arkansas Department of Education] to [the Department of Information Systems] because of efficiency reasons and to streamline the process," said J.R. Davis, a spokesman for Gov. Asa Hutchinson. "When the governor makes decisions, he's trying to look at all different parts of state government and see what makes sense."
Arkansas House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said the bidding process would normally have originated with the Information Systems Department, but past issues initially undermined confidence in the agency.
The department had been criticized in recent years over the cost of the services -- including Internet access, phone systems and other information technology services -- that it provides to other departments. The department's previous billing problems cost Arkansas $44 million in 2006, after the state settled a lawsuit with the federal government.
"Gov. Hutchinson came in and repurposed [the department]," Gillam said. "A new director came on. He felt that they were back."
The new request for bids didn't contain the regional requirement. It also asked providers to bid on the intradistrict networks.
"It is understood that some districts encompass multiple exchanges or vendor service areas, and some districts face geographic challenges," the new request said. "To overcome these challenges, [the Department of Information Systems] will accept bids for alternate technologies."
It took two rounds of bidding for the department to secure 274 bids.
Morse said the request for bids from the Arkansas Department of Education laid the groundwork for the Department of Information Systems' proposal.
"I think that the state has always been consistent with its thought to have multiple providers to ensure there's price competition ... but at the same time limiting it to as few providers as possible so management of the APSCN network isn't more complicated than it really needed to be," he said.
Ritter Communications became more active in reaching out to state government after the company saw the first request. Morse said he's pleased with the outcome.
"It's a win-win," he said. "Private industry is stepping up to help this happen as quickly as possible. I think we recognize the need for Arkansas to improve."
SundayMonday on 05/10/2015