Resort TV Cable will upgrade its internet service to a 1-gigabit system that will be available for all of Hot Springs, Walter E. Hussman Jr., chairman of WEHCO Media, Inc., the parent company of Resort and The Sentinel-Record, announced Thursday at The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce.
"This will be for the whole community; we're not cherry-picking," Hussman said, noting some companies have put in 1-gigabit service in "selected neighborhoods," but Resort's service is for "the high income, low income, middle income, downtown businesses, the entire community."
The upgrade will cost about $5.8 million, he said, noting they have already spent $2 million and "we're spending the other $3.8 million right now." He said it's "real expensive to build cable systems" and the $2 million investment brings the company's total investment in Resort to $41.5 million.
With the other $3.8 million, "that's over $45 million. That's a big number, but it's something we're excited about. We're excited about having a community like Hot Springs to invest money in," he said.
Hussman said probably the first area "we turn on" will be downtown "before or by the end of the year" and by the end of 2022, the service will extend through all of Hot Springs. Chuck Launius, general manager of Resort, noted the initial phase will include downtown Central Avenue, Bathhouse Row, then up Park Avenue and eventually out Central to Albert Pike Road, Grand and Malvern avenues as they go along.
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Chattanooga, Tenn., was one of the first areas in the country to put gigabit service throughout the community, Hussman said, and "made a big deal about being called a Gig city and it really helped the city. It's a great promotional thing for the city."
He said Hot Springs may be the first city in Arkansas to make it available to all so "Hot Springs is going to be a leader."
Hussman noted a gigabit is 1,000 megabits and since the Federal Communication Commission defines "high-speed internet" as 25 megabits a second, then a gigabit is "40 times the legal definition" of high-speed internet.
Beginning in 2019, Resort began upgrading its network and distribution system with the goal of launching true gig speeds in all businesses and homes in the service area, a news release said, noting the new service will be provided throughout all of its 1,000-plus miles of plant.
"It's a big day for us," Launius said, noting, "we first started talking about gigabit service in 2016 or 2017" and "it's always been a goal to bring it here. It just shows the great ownership we have in our company. We've done a lot of work since the pandemic started and we have always had a great desire to serve our community because Hot Springs is the best community in Arkansas."
Along with improvements in broadband, water, highway projects and other growth, the gigabit service "is just another piece of the puzzle" and "another added attraction for industry and residents," Launius said. "There's lots going on and we're just proud to be part of it. We're making a commitment to Hot Springs."
As a result of the upgrades that have been made to date, each of the Cablelynx Broadband service package speeds will increase over the next few months with the Cablelynx Extreme service package speed moving up to 250 Mbps as early as May, the release said.
The nearly $6 million project adds to the company's existing fiber-optic infrastructure and expands Cablelynx Broadband service to provide "major growth opportunities for area businesses and gives them the competitive advantage they want and need," the release said.
"The residential community will also have more options for internet service to meet the growing demand from work-from-home and the home-school requirements that are being placed on our customers," it said.
Hussman said his family first got into the cable TV business in the 1960s with systems in Hope and Camden and got the franchise in Hot Springs in 1968. Hussman started working for the family business in 1970 and "we'd just built about 30 miles of plant here in Hot Springs and turned it on and it was a real mess. We were pretty new to the cable business and had a lot of technical problems."
He said they decided to take "a different approach" and hired a consulting engineer from a Dallas firm which "designed a set of plans on how the system should work." They hired a general contractor to build the system and "we didn't pay them until it met the plans and specifications we wanted. We quickly got everything resolved and have been operating in Hot Springs now for over 50 years."
Hussman said there aren't many cable companies in America still being operated today by the original franchisee, noting most made their money by ultimately selling the business. "Some towns have had their cable business sold two, three, four or five times," he said. "Our philosophy as a company is not to buy and sell things, but to operate things," including The Sentinel-Record for 91 years.
Many cable companies were owned by newspapers, but in the 1990s it became evident the systems needed to be rebuilt with fiber optics which was "very expensive," so many newspapers "got out of the business" including big ones like The New York Times, he said.
"We looked at it and thought, 'What should we do?' We decided to stay in but it was a very expensive decision," he said, noting including Hot Springs and other cities where they had systems, it cost the company over $70 million to upgrade, but "we did it. We made the investment."
City Manager Bill Burrough told Hussman, "I just want to say thank you for that investment in our town, our city and our community. We've been catapulted into technology that we really couldn't have dreamed of a year or so ago."
The new service "will really set us apart. There are so many occupations where people can work anywhere and choose where they want to be. We've done a lot of work in the quality of life arena here. I think this will partner with that and we'll see those kind of tech jobs come to Hot Springs," he said.
County Judge Darryl Mahoney also thanked Resort for "investing in rural areas. We've worked hand in hand to expand broadband in areas that are underserved. We appreciate everything you've done for us."
The company said to watch for future announcements and updates at http://www.resorttvcable.com.