Challenges remain to finally connect all of Texas to broadband

AUSTIN (KXAN) — The state is working toward making faster, more reliable internet service available to the estimated seven million Texans who still do not have access to broadband. Last year, voters approved $1.5 billion to help push more projects forward, but challenges are still emerging despite more money becoming available.

The Texas Senate's finance committee met Thursday to discuss how implementation is progressing with the Broadband Infrastructure Fund, a measure approved by more than 69% of Texas voters in November. Glenn Hegar, the state's comptroller of public accounts, told senators his office is still working out how to distribute the state resources approved by voters — on top of dealing with a lot of strings tied to federal dollars that are also available.

"Our efforts to make progress have been affected by essentially the federal government's ever-shifting guidance, and the slow approval process placed significant pressure on our diverse state," Hegar testified Thursday.

The federal bureaucracy is something Blanco County is dealing with now, too. County leaders there are partnering with HC Wireless, a local broadband provider, in hopes of securing a federal grant worth more than $4 million to build out more broadband. David McCullough with HC Wireless called navigating that process "complex," but he added it's worth it.

"We built our company to serve our communities, and one way we serve our community is to be able to reach them," McCullough said. "There's only so much we can do with our private funding, as large as our county is, so to have some federal funds potentially coming our way, take advantage of these opportunities, we are now able to serve our community, which was our original goal."

A Texas congressman is now part of an effort to streamline the federal process and improve broadband access to underserved communities. U.S. Rep. August Pfluger, whose district includes rural areas in the Hill Country and west Texas, introduced the PROTOCOL Act this week.

He said this legislation would help improve the mapping process for broadband funding and enhance inter-agency coordination when awarding grants. In a statement Thursday, Pfluger said the goal is to make sure "federal funding can be directed to close the digital divide, while preventing wasteful spending."

“The federal government is spending billions of dollars through various broadband-supporting programs to close the digital divide,” Pfluger said. “However, due to a lack of coordination between federal agencies, rural communities like those in West Texas risk being unserved due to inaccurate broadband maps. Furthermore, taxpayer dollars risk being wasted overbuilding already-served locations. The PROTOCOL Act ensures accurate broadband mapping across the United States so federal funding can be directed to close the digital divide while preventing wasteful spending.”

Blanco County is like many rural areas across the state striving to expand broadband. Bobby Mack-McClung, the mayor pro-tem of Blanco, said the community "used to be kind of a black hole of fiber" until about 10 years ago when some broadband fiber connectivity finally became available in a limited area. He's now planning to join a countywide committee aimed at looking for opportunities to expand where it's offered.

"People certainly see the need, and Blanco is a little bit of a target right now, with growth from both San Antonio and Austin," Mack-McClung said. "We're right there in the middle, so it's a critical need and an urgent need for us. There's some public and private discussions about building more private networks, so we're looking at all options, but it's critical. Help is on the way."

Blanco County should learn in the fall whether it received the multi-million-dollar grant from a U.S. Department of Agriculture program, McCullough said.