How a Rural County in Texas Solved Its Broadband Problem

A group of women known as the Mamacítas Cibernéticas are conducting outreach in Sunland Park, New Mexico, to gauge the digital literacy needs of locals — particularly older Hispanic women. They’re using that information to lobby lawmakers for computer training programs to help bridge the digital divide.

The free, public WiFi network LinkNYC addresses the digital divide exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. LinkNYC replaces old payphone kiosks and provides high-speed WiFi hotspots and allow for phone calls, device charging and access to social services and local information.

Smartphones and cheap data are enabling Indian women, even those who never learned how to read and write, to access new networks and markets. Voice memos and images shared via apps like WhatsApp make accessing information easier. As a result, women are running businesses, finding new customers, and even saving remote forests by alerting journalists to illegal logging. As the accessibility of smartphones and affordable data increases, so does this demographic’s autonomy.

The Rural Broadband Cooperative took matters into its own hands after local and state politicians failed to provide high-speed internet for their rural Pennsylvania county. Telecommunications companies did not consider Huntingdon County a priority so community members who include carpenters, welders, and crane operators all came together to find a solution for a problem that affected everyone from children to business owners and realized all they needed was a radio tower on a mountaintop. The group built and installed it themselves, spending only $50,000 and providing internet for 1,000 locals.

Rural areas struggle to have internet, which can be a problem for everyone including students. Mansfield/ Richland County Public Libraries have started lending out hot spots, which has been very successful and useful for residents.

The residents of Etteln, Germany responded to rural decline and digital exclusion by organizing grassroots collective action—including volunteer-led fiber-optic installation and community-driven digital innovations—which reversed population loss, doubled school enrollment, earned global recognition as the world's smartest city, and created a replicable model now used by 500+ cities worldwide.

Faced with inadequate internet service that was driving away businesses, the remote West Texas town of Monahans launched a community-driven initiative to build its own fiber optic broadband network. The town cobbled together $3.2 million from a variety of sources, including federal CARES Act funds and venture capital, to create an underground fiber network that serves about 2,000 homes and businesses, with plans to expand.

While not without challenges, Starlink, a satellite technology company, played a pivotal role in bringing internet service to rural communities around the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. Community members, the Cuba Independent School District, tribal councils, and Starlink worked together to install widespread internet connectivity, which has improved academic performance for their rural students.

In an effort to address a lack of broadband access, Indigenous communities are working together, and with local organizations, to acquire funding to bring internet access to their communities and close the digital divide.

Black Churches 4 Digital Equity partners with local congregations and clergy members to connect people with internet access helping them get signed up with the Affordable Connectivity Program, which provides discounted internet access and a one-time discount for laptop, desktop, or tablet purchases for those whose income is less than 200% of the federal poverty line. Through community outreach and events, local clergy have helped more than 230,000 households enroll in the program.