Construction work is scheduled to begin this week on a $23.7 million plan to provide high-speed broadband Internet access to about 3,000 Callaway County homes and businesses.
The area includes much of Fulton stretching along State Route F to include the Millersburg area.
Money to finance the project came from a $16.6 million Rural Utility Service grant to Socket Telecom LLC of Columbia from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and a $7.1 million loan from the USDA to make up Socket's 30 percent share of the cost of the $23.7 million project.
A Socket spokesman said several miles of conduit piping for fiber optic cabling has been delivered.
To help the tornado-stricken people of Dumas and surroundings, donations can be made to the Delta Area Disaster Relief Fund, care of the Delta Area Community Foundation, P.O. Box 894, Dumas, AR, 71639, or through the Arkansas Community Foundation, 700 S. Rock St., Little Rock, AR, 72202.