Disconnected Texans
- Nearly 1 million Texans lack adequate infrastructure to support broadband service.
- Over 3 million households do not subscribe to fixed broadband service.
Geographic gap
- Roughly 89% of Texans with inadequate broadband infrastructure reside in rural Texas.
- Rural communities can pay up to 4 to 5 times more for fixed broadband services in comparison to urban communities.
Income gap
- Less than half of the state’s households earning less than $20,000 a year subscribe to fixed broadband, whereas 82% of households earning $75,000 or more do.
Students
- At the onset of the pandemic, 3.1 million K-12 Texas students did not have access to broadband or an adequate learning device.
- After close to a $1 billion investment in student connectivity, over 2 million K-12 Texas students still lack in-home broadband sufficient for learning.
Telehealth
- 74 counties do not have a hospital; 22 rural hospitals have closed since 2010; 35 counties do not have a primary care physician - A majority of these counties also have inadequate broadband infrastructure for telemedicine access.
National competitiveness
- Texas ranks 35th among states for the percentage of households subscribing to broadband internet.