PB cable TV service sets $2M in upgrades

Pine Bluff Cable TV is investing more than $2 million in its network and distribution systems with gigabit service available by mid-2022, the company said Thursday in a news release.

“These are exciting times for the Pine Bluff area,” said Chuck Launius, a vice president and regional manager of Pine Bluff Cable TV. “There are not many cities or towns in America that offer [gigabit] service to all their residents.”

The first step in the upgrade is an increase in service speeds and data allowances in broadband residential and business packages, with speeds of up to 250 megabit available across the system by the middle of next month. Additional plant construction that starts this summer will bring gigabit service in mid2022.

“This $2 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 that they want and need,” said Walter E. Hussman, Jr., chairman of WEHCO Media, the parent company of Pine Bluff Cable TV, the Democrat-Gazette and the Pine Bluff Commercial.

“The residential subscribers will also be given more options for their internet service to meet the growing demands of the work-from-home and the home-school requirements that are being placed on them,” Hussman said.