More than half of Georgia counties lack high-speed internet for 20% or more of their homes and businesses, state data shows. Nearly all of them are in rural areas. A few small counties like Baker and Glascock – with nearly 4,000 homes and businesses total – have no broadband access at all.

Officials in the small city of Arabi, located in Crisp County, said recently in an application for federal funds that none of their residents have broadband internet access. Local school officials trucked out mobile hotspots to places like an old hardware store for students to take classes in a grassy parking lot during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, said the school district’s technology director, Barry Doyle. The large pot of federal dollars headed Georgia’s way should curb the need for many Georgia students and their families to rely on quality internet outside their homes, advocates say.

“The one missing piece for a long time was funding,” said Jessica Simmons, the deputy chief information officer for broadband at the Georgia Technology Authority (GTA). “Now we’re really in a position that the funding is going to be there to hopefully bridge this gap.”

Georgia’s rural counties face less access to high-speed internet than urban areas. (Credit: Brittney Phan for State Affairs)

So far, around $326 million in federal funds has gone directly to companies like Comcast, Windstream and SpaceX for building high-speed internet projects in Georgia over the next decade. Another roughly $300 million in federal dollars from COVID-19 pandemic relief will fund local broadband projects until 2026. The recently passed federal infrastructure bill also has Georgia slated for an additional $100 million for broadband projects in the coming years. 

“We never realized that this much money would get dropped in our lap this quickly,” Mueller said. “The challenge is just where [to build]. There’s always going to be a certain amount of people who will be left out” due to lack of funds.

• Read how Gov. Brian Kemp has direct authority over Georgia’s share of the latest round of emergency federal funds in our story, “Georgia’s Governor has Nearly $5 Billion in Pandemic Relief to Spend. How Will He Use It?”

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Part II: Steep Costs for Broadband