POYEN, AR – Reliable internet may be lacking in Poyen, but a recent expansion aims to change that.
“It goes up and down here, and if it goes down, it could go down for a while,” Barbara Marvel said.
It has become an inconvenience for her and many other people living in the area.
“I was working from home, so that definitely affected me,” Marvel said.
Windstream’s Kinetic Fiber Internet Gigabit Expansion aims to change that, using $8.2 million from the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to serve more than 2,000 locations in Grant County.
“We are partnering with the state of Arkansas, the State Broadband Authority and the federal government, as well as investing our own private capital,” said David Avery, Windstream vice president of government affairs.
Avery said it’s about giving residents access to faster, more affordable internet, and he believes it will make a difference.
“There is no place near us that provides internet service here,” Marvel said.
But now that construction has begun, residents of Poyen will have access to a reliable and closer internet service provider for all eligible residents.
“We went from very slow speeds to now the ability to reach up to 1 gigabit. That’s a big change,” Avery said.
