Internet Access in Alabama

Alabama comes in at 38th for state broadband access. The average download speed currently hovers around 111.8 Mbps. While some regions of the state are relatively well-connected, there are still number of counties with low broadband coverage. One county’s population sits at 99% of its residents without access to a 25 Mbps wired connection.

The “digital divide” is a term used to quantify the gulf between people who have reliable access to the internet and those who do not. 88.6% of Alabama state has access to a wired 25 Mbps or faster. Still, this leaves 475,000 people in Alabama without such access. While Alabama hosts 154 operational internet providers, 632,000 people have the choice of only one internet provider at their location, whilst 226,000 Alabamians have no wired internet options at all.  An internet plan must cost $60 or less per month to qualify as “low-priced,” according to experts. Only 44.4% of Alabamians have access to an affordable plan. It is therefore true that Alabama is behind the national average of 51.5% of Americans who have access to such a plan.

In terms of internet access, affordability and speed, Birmingham ranks as the most well-connected city in Alabama, with Huntsville, Mobile, and Montgomery not far behind.

When it comes to broadband access, Alabama state is still far down the list. Loachapoka, Jachin, Trenton, and Boykin rank as having the worst connection across the state respectively. In Loachapoka, the fastest average internet speed is as little as 0.16 Mbps.

$4,874,142 has been granted to the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs’ broadband data and development initiative, since 2010. An additional $91,596,026 in federal grants has been put towards expanding broadband infrastructure within Alabama state.

More recently, current state legislation has aimed to provide high-speed internet services to a number of neglected communities and counties, establishing the Alabama Broadband Accessibility Fund to do so.