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Group Aims for 1-Gig Service in Little Rock

2 min read

In the race to bring higher Internet speeds to the capital city, one group is planning to soon unveil 1-gigabit service in downtown Little Rock, possibly as early as this week.

The first company to deliver such speeds to downtown isn’t yet a household name, something its founders hope to change if their business can expand.

Lou McAlister, who has worked in the telecom industry for decades and is one of three founders of Broadband Development Group LLC (along with James Hendren of Little Rock and Tom Flak of San Francisco), said he thinks his technology is the right fit to provide affordable, high-speed Internet. You might recall that McAlister was named the first entrepreneur-in-residence at The Venture Center in Little Rock in October.

McAlister said the group has already installed equipment in the Union Plaza building that can emit an Internet signal across downtown. He said that businesses and residences in the area could use the service with an antenna installed on their own buildings to pick up the signal. The Internet would then be carried through the building through an ethernet or wireless connection.

That “wireless last mile” technology differs from several telecom companies that are currently focused on installing fiber all the way to the buildings they serve. One of the first companies to provide 1-gigabit service in the state, Fidelity Communications of Benton, installed fiber lines directly to homes in the subdivisions where it offers the highest speeds.

McAlister, who founded Navigator Telecommunications of North Little Rock, where he served as president until 2012, said he hopes to launch the new service “shortly” and that he plans to target multitenant residential and commercial buildings. He said he had discussed the service with real estate and business partners, but that he could not publicly disclose which ones. He said the company plans to charge end users about $50-$60 per month for its service.

McAlister said the idea for the project came after talking to other businesses and technology entrepreneurs who said one of their biggest obstacles was slow Internet service. He said he hopes to later expand the service, with ambitious goals of scaling the company into a national and international provider.

“There’s been really huge interest by the investment community, the real estate community, the user community. I think everybody’s really ready to see something like this,” McAlister said.

More details are expected to be released this week.

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