Arkansas has been awarded a $7.8 million grant to address broadband needs in underserved areas and by creating a website where residents can go online to make use of government services. In addition, the funds will be used to fund computer training courses and to refurbish computers for qualifying families.Read more

A new report from ID Insight finds that states with the lowest average income actually in fact have the greatest broadband competition. Leading the pack are Arkansas, North Dakota and South Carolina. From the report: "We see that the five states with the lowest income have the most competition, while the five states with the highest income have the least competition.”

The report also finds that states with larger populations do not necessarily have the best access to service providers. For instance, Nebraska was found to have greater consumer choice than New York. “It very well may be that specifically because less affluent states did not attract one of the largest providers (at least for a while), several smaller regional or local providers were able to establish stronger market positions," the report concludes.

You can read the full ID Insight report here and read the Ars Technica story here.

Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas have been awarded $28.6 million in new grants from the Commerce Department to build out more than 680 miles of fiber in 35 communities. Allegiance Communications said the four-state project would bring broadband access to an estimated 12,700 homes and 230 businesses, along with upgrading the high-speed Internet capabilities of public safety organizations.

Read the Broadband Breakfast story here.