Ritter builds a $16M fiber connection for both sides of Texarkana

Regional broadband provider Ritter Communications has wrapped up a $16 million fiber project to bring faster services to Texarkana, Arkansas and Texarkana, Texas.

Ritter said the completion of the fiber project would make it the first service provider in the Texarkana markets to offer a XGS-PON service with speeds of up to 10 Gbps over the 100% fiber connection. Ritter is also offering customers custom cloud solutions.

Texarkana is a  unique market for Ritter Communications because the city spans two states, serving customers in both Arkansas and Texas. With the addition of business customers in Texas, the Texarkana market represents the fourth state served by Ritter.

Ritter started its Texarkana fiber build earlier this year to serve the area's major business corridors. The new high-speed services will be available to business customers in zones starting in July.

Ritter Communications, which is headquartered in Jonesboro, Arkansas, spent $12 million for a transport route that runs along Interstate 30 and the remaining $4 million to build out its business services, which also include voice, networking and video solutions.

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Ritter Communications also donated $25,000 to the Texarkana Regional Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s COVID-19 Small Business Support Program. The program was established by the chamber and other community partners to help small businesses recover from the impact of COVID-19.

Ritter competes against Windstream, Charter Communications and Sparklight (formerly Cable One) in areas of its footprint. Ritter first offered phone service in 1906. It now serves 92 communities and more than 45,000 customers across Arkansas, northeast Texas, southeast Missouri, and west Tennessee.