Broadband Development and Inaccessibility for East Texans
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, over 2.8 million Texas households and 7 million Texans lack broadband, disproportionately affecting rural areas in East Texas. East Texas lawmakers Sen. Robert Nichols and Rep. Trent Ashby have proposed Senate Bill 1238 and House Bill 2662 that could increase the broadband funding East Texas receives [1]. HB 9, filed by state Rep. Trent Ashby, would create a $5 billion fund administered by the Texas Comptroller’s office. The money would be used to strengthen the Texas Broadband Development Office’s efforts to expand internet availability, making it the biggest state investment in broadband development to date [2]. The bills would redefine “broadband service” to include a standard for latency – how long in milliseconds it takes for a device to send and receive data – and a high-speed threshold that measures how much data can be uploaded or downloaded at a time [1].
[3] Location Points
Blue: “served” = locations where maxspeed is greater than or equal to 11/20 Mbps down/up
Orange: “underserved” = locations where maxspeed is between 25/3 and 100/20 Mbps down/up
Red: “unserved” = locations where maxspeed is less than 25/3 Mbps down/up
State and federal broadband funding is determined by the Texas Broadband Development Map and a federal map released last November. The Deep East Texas Council of Governments has challenged both maps, which show that about 98% of locations in East Texas have broadband. Areas with less than 80% of addresses with internet access at speeds of at least 25 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads are prioritized for broadband grant funding. The council collected internet speed data from over 3,000 residents in Deep East Texas and identified 54 census blocks where most internet speeds are below that threshold. The Deep East Texas Council of Governments also submitted its challenge to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after finding that 27% of East Texans the council interviewed could not find their home on the federal map. The state broadband development office challenged that map in February after identifying 176,000 businesses or residences not on the map [1].
According to the U.S. Census Bureau estimates from 2017 to 2021, more than 15% of households lacked broadband in five Central Texas counties (Bastrop, Fayette, Lee, Caldwell, and Mason). Brownsville, the 18th-largest city in Texas, was ranked as the least connected community in the United States. Between 2017 and 2021, more than 8% of Travis County households lacked broadband internet subscriptions. Travis County has the infrastructure to provide broadband to every household, but about 5,500 households are still “underserved,” meaning they cannot access maximum speeds of 100/20 Mbps. Another factor preventing households from obtaining broadband is unaffordability, as some families pay up to $300 per month for internet access [5].
Broadband is steadily becoming a necessity for households, and establishing broadband infrastructure is the key to bridging the digital divide [4]. Senate Bill 1238 and House Bill 2662 would be constitutional amendments; if the bills pass through the Legislature, the final say in creating these funds will be in the hands of Texas voters [2].
Sources:
[1] https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/29/east-texas-internet-broadband-access-maps-petition/
[2] https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/07/broadband-water-infrastructure-texas-bills/
[3] https://lightbox-tx.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=37cb56b9f648449191c2a37e3eb2fb1a
[5] https://www.texastribune.org/2022/12/13/texas-glenn-hegar-broadband-maps-delay/
