Broadband Equity is Key for Texas Success

by Glenn Hegar, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

Like many parents these days, I often find myself reflecting on my children growing up as digital natives and how, in such a short time, the internet has become such an indispensable part of our lives.

In this digital world, I find parenting three teenagers often involves a good bit of helping my kids navigate FOMO – or Fear of Missing Out –which happens when they learn what their peers are doing and want to be included.

In my role as Texas Comptroller, I’ve been hearing about a different kind of FOMO – Fear of Missed Opportunities – caused by lack of broadband access across our state. It is crucial to our state’s future success that we take steps now to provide all Texans with equitable access to the same activities, options and advantages.

Almost 2.8 million Texas households — more than 7 million Texans — do not have access to broadband, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This lack of access translates into missed opportunities on a colossal scale: 23% of Texans are unable to attend online classes, see a healthcare provider from their living room, fill out a job application online, start a business or access online marketplaces from their kitchen table. These barriers negatively affect Texans’ quality of life and limit opportunities for the state overall.

Waco is situated literally in the heart of Texas within the Central Texas economic region, which covers about 17,400 square miles and is composed of 20 counties. Forty-two percent of households in the region do not have cable broadband, and 20% do not have internet of any kind, according to Ernst & Young LLP.

Who Goes Without?

Broadband consists of: a high-speed internet connection that is constant and continuously available 24/7; can transmit high-quality data with a wide bandwidth; and includes Wi-Fi, DSLs, fiber and satellites. Broadband is considered an indispensable part of our country’s infrastructure.

According to a 2016 Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas report, rural communities, communities of color and low-income families are disproportionately affected by limited broadband coverage. Since that report’s publication, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology for some but expanded the digital divide for others.

BroadbandNow, a company that provides consumers with a comprehensive dataset of internet plans and internet service providers (ISPs), currently ranks Texas as 40th among states in its annual rankings of internet coverage, speed and availability. There are broadband “dead zones” in Texas where the lack of broadband availability is unrelated to cost. Eighty-nine percent of households in rural areas are without broadband, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture found in 2019 that a quarter of Texas farms have no internet access. For residents living in these areas, it doesn’t matter what they are able or willing to pay — the service is just not there. For those who can’t afford basic service, it may as well not be there.

Launching Texas' Broadband Development Office

Over the past three years, the gaps in our state’s broadband coverage were never made so starkly apparent as when the COVID-19 shutdown quickly revealed how essential internet connectivity is for our interactions. There is a direct correlation between broadband coverage and whether our state’s communities, businesses, health care and education systems thrive.

To close the digital divide, the 87th Legislature created the Texas Broadband Development Office, or BDO, in the Texas Comptroller’s office, marking a giant step toward achieving broadband equity for all Texans. The Texas Legislature charged the BDO with awarding grants, low-interest loans and other financial incentives to ISPs, allowing for the expansion of broadband services across the state to provide Texans with fast, reliable and secure internet. That access is critical for economic growth, health care options and educational and innovative opportunities.

When the BDO launched in August 2021, Texas was one of just a handful of states without a broadband plan. The Texas Broadband Plan, released in June 2022, is a living document based on several guiding principles forming the foundation for future federal and state funding, and built upon the feedback my staff collected from Texans through 12 public town halls, 60 virtual regional roundtable discussions and more than 16,000 survey responses. The plan will be refined over time as federal agencies finalize program guidance and funding allocations. We anticipate more details will be added if the Texas Legislature appropriates additional state funding for new programs on broadband expansion.

Broadband Funding Sources

The BDO was awarded $5 million in Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Initial Planning Funds from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). This funding has been applied toward the development of the state’s five-year action plan to establish the state of Texas’ broadband goals and priorities.

The BDO was also awarded $3.1 million to develop the State Digital Equity Plan, which must identify barriers that prevent individuals and communities in Texas from having the information technology capacity that is needed for full participation in the society and economy. The Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program is a formula funding program to distribute $1.4 billion to states to implement plans and promote digital inclusion; additionally, the program funds an annual grant program for five years.

The passage of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides Texas with significant funding to support broadband efforts. A significant focus of the BDO will be establishing grant programs and the ongoing awarding and monitoring of funds to achieve intended impacts.

This January, my agency received $363.8 million from the U.S. Department of the Treasury for the Bringing Online Opportunities to Texas (BOOT) program, which is a competitive grant application program administered by the BDO. The funds, administered through the federal Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, will bring much-needed service to about 152,000 locations across the state, and is designed to fund last mile broadband infrastructure projects in eligible unserved and underserved areas throughout the state.

The Route to an Accurate Coverage Map

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its long-awaited initial version of the National Broadband Map on Nov. 18, 2022. The National Broadband Map displays location-by-location views of high-speed internet availability across the country, as reported by ISPs to the FCC. The final map, due to be published in June 2023, will be used by the FCC and NTIA to determine how $42.5 billion provided by IIJA and BEAD funds will be distributed.

Unfortunately, the National Broadband Map is clearly flawed and could potentially reduce Texas’ allocation of BEAD funds by billions of dollars. The FCC gave state and local officials until Jan. 13, 2023, to challenge the map’s accuracy – a tight deadline that limited the accuracy of our response.

My agency will continue to urge the NTIA to allow additional time for a thorough and transparent process to improve the FCC map accuracy and adjust BEAD funding allocations to ensure that each state is getting its fair share based on the best data available. Allowing more time to incorporate a bulk location challenge into the map fabric is a meaningful step that NTIA can take to improve BEAD funding decisions.

On the map, blue means SERVED (locations where maxspeed is greater than or equal to 100/20 Mbps); yellow means UNDERSERVED (locations where maxspeed is between 25/3 and 100/20 Mbps); and red means UNSERVED (locations where maxspeed is less than 25/3 Mbps).

Your Engagement Matters

In the meantime, the BDO has developed tools to help local entities engage Texans in the FCC challenge process. Anyone may challenge the map’s accuracy. Resources on the Comptroller’s website offer answers to frequently asked questions, outreach materials, detailed challenge submission instructions, video tutorials and more.

I urge you to participate in challenging the accuracy of the FCC National Broadband map. Visit the Texas Broadband Development Office website, and download the FCC Map Challenge Toolkit for Texans (PDF) and Map Challenge Flowchart (PDF) to help you through the process. Use our tools to check your area’s broadband access anywhere in your community.

The BDO launched its own Texas Broadband Development Map on Jan. 12, 2023. This interactive map identifies areas of the state eligible for broadband expansion project funding as defined by state law. (State law defines a designated area as eligible for funding if less than 80% of serviceable locations have access to internet at speeds of 25 megabits per second (mbps) downstream and 3 mbps upstream.) The map also allows Texans to check broadband coverage across the state, using data collected from ISPs operating in Texas.

The Importance of Staying Connected

The Texas Broadband Development Map will be updated twice a year, with the next data refresh scheduled for February or March. As the BDO creates a more granular address-level broadband availability map, newly collected data will allow the BDO to operate with greater precision moving into the future.

Connecting more than 1 million households to high-speed broadband, improving connectivity for over 5.6 million households, improving broadband affordability for 3.6 million households and assisting 3.8 million Texans with digital literacy education presents a challenging, but not impossible, goal. Help is on the way, but we need your participation to secure broadband for all Texans.

Visit BroadbandForTexas.com for more information about the Texas Broadband Development Office, to learn more about upcoming connectivity grant programs, to check the broadband coverage for your community and more.