Paul Flahive

State office may not challenge broadband maps, risking hundreds of millions of federal funds for Texas

Billions of dollars are up for grabs to expand broadband availability across the country. But the Federal Communication Commission maps that will determine where the money goes are inaccurate, according to the Texas comptroller, because internet service providers inflated their coverage areas. The Texas office charged with challenging and improving those maps at the state level says it can’t.

Who Gets 5G — And Who Gets Left Behind — Has Some Worried About Digital Inequality

What gets left out of the conversation about 5G is that the service will likely be rolled out the same way as in technologies past — predominantly in wealthier areas.

Inside The Movement To Improve Access To High-Speed Internet In Rural Areas

Like clean water or electricity, the Internet is now a must in most people's lives, but the federal government says more than 21 million people can't get broadband. Many of them live in rural areas. Now, if they had Internet access, it might slow the brain drain, spur innovation in farming and breathe new life into local economies. Paul Flahive of Texas Public Radio visited one rural community that's turned to an old playbook to connect the disconnected.

‘We Do Not Have Coverage Here:’ Texans Take On Federal Broadband Maps

If the total number of people in the US lacking broadband internet access was a state — at around 25 million — it would be roughly the population of Texas. But many argue the maps showing who has access and who doesn’t are wrong.  Residents of Deep East Texas think they are one of those areas where the Federal Communications Commission has it wrong.

There is a major digital divide on the Texas-Mexico border, one of least connected parts of the country

The Texas-Mexico border is one of the least connected in the US. A map from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas shows border counties bathed in bright red, meaning less than around 60 percent have home internet access. It’s a distinction shared by the Mississippi Delta and Appalachia, other parts of the country with pernicious poverty. But that may change. The small city of Pharr, Texas — just a handful of miles from the border — is trying to make a change, and end the kind of disconnectedness that plagues low-income border communities.

'Closing The Digital Divide': Connecting The Least Connected In Texas

The Texas-Mexico border is one of the least connected in the US.  A map from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas shows border counties bathed in bright red, meaning less than 60 percent have home access. It’s a distinction shared by the Mississippi Delta and Appalachia, other parts of the country with pernicious poverty. But that may change.