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Round-Up for the Week of December 8-12, 2025

This week, the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama released a report, Broadband in Alabama’s Black Belt in 2025, that examines broadband infrastructure expansion efforts in Alabama's 24-county Black Belt region, an area characterized by persistent poverty and significant rural/urban divides. The authors set out to answer three specific questions about public investment, outcomes, and remaining connectivity gaps. Governor Kay Ivey (R-AL) has made broadband access a top priority of her administration since taking office in 2017. The report tracks the state's progress over the past few years and points to the need for further action.

About Alabama's Black Belt

“Black Belt” describes the black soil of Alabama. No consistent definition is used by state or federal agencies, or by researchers to identify the area. For this report, the Education Policy Center includes 24 counties. All 11 of the state’s majority-minority counties are in this region. The Black Belt is characterized by searing poverty. All 24 counties were in persistent poverty in 1970; 50 years later, in 2020, 19 still were. In 2023, the Black Belt’s labor force participation rate was 52 percent, compared to national and state rates of 63 percent and 57 percent, respectively. Key civil rights history events happened here, including the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott that propelled Martin Luther King, Jr., to prominence, and the founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The Bloody Sunday police riots at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and the Selma-to-Montgomery march, which preceded the Voting Rights Act of 1965, happened here.

I. The Alabama Connectivity Plan

Alabama set its strategic framework in December 2021. The Alabama Connectivity Plan set the foundation for state's subsequent efforts. The plan established mid- and long-term goals for Alabama:

• 5-year goal: 90% of Alabama consumers and businesses would have access to service offering 100 megabits per second (Mbps) download speeds and 20 Mbps upload speeds
• 10-year goal: 98% would have access to 100/20 Mbps over networks capable of scaling to 100/100 Mbps

The plan also adopted 100/20 Mbps as the state's broadband standard (replacing the Federal Communications Commission's outdated 25/3 Mbps benchmark).

The Connectivity Plan identified that Alabama had approximately:

• 210,302 addresses (12.7% of the total addresses in the state) unserved by 25/3 Mbps service
• 310,874 addresses (18.8%) unserved by 100/20 Mbps

Crucially, the plan estimated that the cost to bridge the access gap in Alabama was $4-6 billion to deploy 100/100 service to all currently unserved addresses.

The plan established several key program frameworks:

1. Expand and adapt existing grant programs with variable match requirements (as low as 20%)
2. Develop a middle-mile grant program
3. Develop a line extension grant program for unserved pockets
4. Update the Alabama Broadband Map annually
5. Support local planning through technical assistance
6. Maximize benefits of federal subsidy programs for consumers

II. Three Key Questions

The University of Alabama research aims to answer three key questions about public investment in broadband, the outcomes of those investments to date, and what remaining work needs to be done to address connectivity gaps.

Question 1: What is Alabama's total public investment in broadband since 2018?

Nearly $2.5 billion in combined federal and state funds have or are being invested in connectivity in Alabama.

Federal Funds (Allocated): Over $1.9 Billion

CARES Act (2020):

• $100 million for Alabama Broadband Connectivity (ABC) for Students program (K-12 equipment: broadband, hotspots, etc.)
• $72 million for remote learning at Alabama colleges

American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA, 2021):

• State Fiscal Recovery Funds: $300 million allocated by Alabama specifically for broadband (out of $772 million total ARPA allocation to the state; approved via House Bill 1 in January 2022)
• Capital Projects Fund (CPF): $191.9 million approved by U.S. Treasury on January 26, 2023
  • Competitive grant program for last-mile infrastructure
  • Expected to connect 55,000 locations (about 9% of locations lacking high-speed internet)
  • Required 100/100 Mbps service capability
  • Required participation in the FCC's now-ended Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which ended in June 2024 when funding ran out

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (2021):

• Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program: $1.4 billion allocated to Alabama in July 2023 by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
• Planning Funds: $5 million received in December 2022

While earlier Cartesian estimates of BEAD-eligible locations in Alabama included more than 212,000 un- and underserved locations, Alabama's draft proposal lists 101,090 locations and 669 community anchor institutions. The state plans to connect the majority of locations with fiber broadband (70.3%), followed by LEO satellite (25.1%) and hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) (4.6%). Alabama's top award goes to Comcast ($157 million) for fiber broadband and HFC service. If NTIA approves the proposal, Alabama will devote $464,262,346 in BEAD support to broadband deployment, and $936,959,556 is reserved for "non-deployment" activities. 

Note on Alabama's BEAD Status

As of December 9, 2025:

• Alabama's final BEAD proposal was submitted to the NTIA for approval in September 2025
• Alabama's final proposal had not yet been approved

State Funds: Approximately $585 Million

Alabama Broadband Accessibility Fund

The Alabama Broadband Accessibility Fund (ABAF), established in 2018 and updated in 2019, finances the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs' (ADECA) broadband accessibility grant program, which is designed to advance the deployment and adoption of high-speed broadband in Alabama’s unserved rural areas. The Fund is supported by legislative appropriations as well as gifts, grants, and other donations, and it can also house state and federal grant monies that must be used consistent with the statewide connectivity plan and applicable funding rules. 

Under the program, most grants are intended for unserved areas and must support projects capable of at least 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload, with awards capped at the lesser of 80 percent of project cost or $5 million. The law also promotes geographic balance by requiring that at least 40 percent of appropriated grant funds be used in unincorporated areas.

The Alabama Broadband Accessibility Act expands eligibility beyond the core “unserved” definition to include certain middle-mile projects and projects serving specific rural anchor sites (e.g., hospitals, health care facilities, public schools, public safety, or economic development sites) where applicants can show specific evidence that existing service does not meet needed speeds/capacity/resiliency. These two categories together are capped at no more than 40 percent of annual appropriated grant funds.

Alabama has allocated over $92 million to the Alabama Broadband Accessibility Fund, supporting at least 100 projects expected to reach 61,000 households/businesses. 

Connect Alabama Fund

On May 17, 2021, Gov. Ivey signed the Connect Alabama Act, creating: 1) the Alabama Digital Expansion Authority to advise, review, and approve the statewide connectivity plan, among numerous other duties; 2) the Alabama Digital Expansion Division of Department of Economic and Community Affairs to develop and begin executing a statewide connectivity plan, among other duties; and 3) the Alabama Digital Expansion Finance Corporation to administer the Connect Alabama Fund, among other duties. The purpose of the Connect Alabama Fund is to extend last-mile infrastructure to unserved areas as well as to establish middle-mile and line extension programs. 

For fiscal years 2019-2023, the ADECA received annual allocations totaling $92.4 million ($7.4 million in FY2019, and $20 million for FY2020-2022, and $25 million in FY2023).

Question 2: What did these funds buy, especially in the Black Belt?

The primary outcome of this investment is the completion of the Alabama Fiber Network (AFN) middle-mile backbone across all 67 counties, laying the foundation for last-mile connectivity. In the Black Belt specifically, these funds fueled progress that yielded tangible results in areas previously unserved.

Statewide Infrastructure

In January 2022, the state of Alabama appropriated $85 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to support broadband expansion. Through a competitive grant process administered by ADECA’s Digital Expansion Division, $82.4 million was awarded to the Alabama Fiber Network (AFN) in September 2022 to build out the middle-mile infrastructure. 

AFN, a collaboration of Alabama’s rural electric cooperatives, is nearing completion of the 3,500-mile fiber backbone that will expand broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities. The full project is scheduled to be completed in February 2026. AFN provides middle-mile service in all of Alabama’s 67 counties as of October 31, 2025. By expanding fiber optic connectivity across Alabama, the middle-mile network will enable last-mile internet providers to reach homes and businesses in rural and hard-to-serve areas. The infrastructure will also connect critical community institutions such as public safety agencies, healthcare facilities, schools, libraries, and local government offices. 

Alabama also allocated $6.2 million in July 2025 for 125 miles of additional middle-mile service in 12 counties (including several Black Belt counties)

Black Belt-Specific Improvements

The University of Alabama research documents dramatic progress in high-speed internet access (100/20 Mbps standard) in Black Belt counties between 2020 and 2024.

• Perry County: Went from 0% coverage in 2020 to 27% coverage by 2024
• Choctaw County: 0% → 35% coverage
• Greene County: 2% → 58% coverage (attributed to Tombigbee Electric Cooperative investments, which has laid over 4,200 miles of fiber)
• Lamar County: Now has some of the highest broadband coverage in the Southeast

Overall Black Belt progress:

• In 2020: 7 of 24 Black Belt counties had below 20% coverage
• By 2024: No Black Belt county was below 27%, and 21 of 24 counties exceeded 40% coverage
• Four Black Belt counties now outpace the statewide average, demonstrating significant variation in progress

Additional Funded Initiatives

Education

• $100 million in CARES Act funds for K-12 distance learning equipment
• $72 million for remote learning at Alabama colleges
• $16 million for the Alabama Digital Education Network (ADEN), in partnership with Ed Farm, to establish learning hubs across the Black Belt using the new broadband infrastructure

Healthcare

• $1 million FCC award to University of Alabama at Birmingham for telehealth equipment (iPads, webcams, remote patient monitoring devices)
• $3 million in USDA grants for telehealth infrastructure

Technical Assistance and Planning

• Launch of Alabama Community Broadband Technical Assistance Program for all 67 counties (December 2022)
• Development of the Alabama Broadband Map, an address-level map that identified unserved locations more accurately than FCC data (the Alabama map showed ~210,000 unserved addresses vs. FCC's ~84,000)

Public-Private Partnerships

The University of Alabama report also attributes progress to effective public-private partnerships, particularly:

• Rural Electric Cooperatives: 23 rural electric cooperatives played a major role, enabled by the 2019 Broadband Using Electric Easements Accessibility Act
• Tombigbee Electric Cooperative: Laid over 4,200 miles of fiber, serving multiple counties including Lamar
• Alabama Power: ISP Partnership Program
• Collaboration mechanisms: ADECA's convening of Internet Service Providers, utility owners, and government officials to align efforts

Question 3: What access gaps exist today?

Infrastructure

Using the 100/20 Mbps benchmark adopted by the FCC, connectivity rates in 2024 were:

• National average: 94%
• Alabama statewide average: 87%
• Black Belt average: 76%
• Non-Black Belt Alabama counties average: Higher than Black Belt

The researchers identify stark geographic disparities:

• Seven Unserved Counties¹ (using 100/20 Mbps standard)
  • Four are in the Black Belt
• Seven Underserved Counties²
  • 6 are in the Black Belt
• Eight Black Belt counties still have less than 50% high-speed coverage—nearly 30 percentage points below the rest of the state
• The Black Belt includes 5 of the 10 counties with the lowest coverage rates in Alabama
• The Black Belt includes 10 of the bottom 15 counties statewide

Adoption

The researchers emphasize that infrastructure completion alone is insufficient. The 2021 Connectivity Plan survey found:

• Approximately 20% of Alabama households do not subscribe to broadband services
• Cost is the primary barrier: 56% of low-income subscribers reported cutting spending on essential expenses (food, utilities, transportation) to pay for internet
• Low awareness of subsidy programs: Only 47% of low-income households had heard of broadband subsidy programs
• Device access: Alabama has the second-highest percentage of homes without computers among compared southeastern states

To address these challenges, the researchers recommend:

1. Digital literacy support for all ages
2. Affordable service options
3. Device access programs
4. Continued deployment to reach remaining unserved locations
5. Planning for potential ISP contract defaults that may leave locations unconnected

III. Report Conclusions

The authors conclude that while significant progress has been made since 2018, substantial work remains:

• The Black Belt's average high-speed access (76%) remains 11 points below the state average (87%) and 18 points below the national average (94%)
• 4 of 7 "unserved" counties and 6 of 7 "underserved" counties are in the Black Belt
• Beyond infrastructure, adoption barriers (affordability, digital literacy, device access) must be addressed

Notes

1. "Unserved county" is defined here as less than 50 percent coverage by networks providing at least 25/3 service.
2. "Underserved county" is defined here as less than 50 percent coverage by networks providing at least 100/20 service.

For more detail, see Broadband in Alabama’s Black Belt in 2025.

For additional updates on broadband access in Alabama, see www.benton.org/states-and-territories/alabama

Quick Bits

• So Far, Approved BEAD Plans Largely in Line with Public Drafts
• Moving the Needle on Universal and Meaningful Access
• House moves on broadband permit reform: What you need to know
• Reps Barragán, Matsui, Carter to FCC: Don’t Deny Millions of Non-English Speakers Access to Clear Internet Price and Service Information

Weekend Reads

• Teens, Social Media and AI Chatbots 2025
• E-rate Trends Report 
• Same Cart, Different Price: Instacart’s Price Experiments Cost Families at Checkout 

ICYMI from Benton

• Investing in the Infrastructures of Connectivity: Whose Benefit? What Bargain?
• States to DC: "Hands Off Our BEAD Money"
• BEAD, Six Months Later
• The End of Progress: New Data Raises the Alarm that No Progress May Be the New Normal for the Digital Divide

Upcoming Events

Dec 17––FCC Oversight Hearing (Senate Commerce Committee)

Dec 18––December 2025 Open Federal Communications Commission Meeting (Federal Communications Commission)

Dec 18––Integrating LEO Satellite Broadband into BEAD-Era Broadband Plans (NTIA)

Feb 3-5––Net Inclusion 2026 (National Digital Inclusion Alliance)

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy - rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity - has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

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