Much effort has been made to bring broadband internet to all 67 counties of Alabama. Since 2018, nearly $2.5 billion in federal and state funds have been administered toward the goal of providing high-speed internet—defined as at least 100/20 megabytes per second—for all Alabamians.
According to a report from the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama, 87% of Alabama residents now have access to high-speed internet. However, access is not evenly distributed across the state.
Only 76% of Black Belt residents have high-speed internet access. Despite this disparity, there have been significant improvements. The report shows that this figure is up more than ten percent from the 67% who had access five years ago.
In 2020, seven of the twenty-four Black Belt counties were below 20% coverage. Today, none of those counties are below 27%, highlighting meaningful progress in expanding broadband access across the region.
