(May 22, 2023) The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) has reached an important milestone in broadband expansion by hosting community broadband meetings in each of Alabama’s 67 counties.

The meetings, implemented through the Alabama Community Broadband Technical Assistance Program, are designed to bring community leaders to the table and provide state-level assistance to support local efforts to expand broadband infrastructure for the benefit of the public and economic development.

(February 11, 2023) If you took a nighttime plane ride across much of the rural South in the early 1900s, you would see nothing but darkness on the ground below because electricity at the time was centered mainly in highly populated areas.

But through federal, state and private sector partnerships, electricity was brought into rural America to light up homes and power the products many of us today take for granted. Life without access to electricity is tough for most of us to even imagine, but there was a time not too long ago when many simply did not have it. The same is true today of high-speed internet access.

(January 30, 2023) Alabama’s efforts to extend access to broadband service to unserved areas received a boost Jan. 26 with the U.S. Treasury Department approval of the state’s plan for the Capital Projects Fund. The approval makes $191.8 million available for broadband expansion, Gov. Kay Ivey said.

The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) will administer the funds as part of a grant program to extend broadband service statewide.

(September 28, 2022) Nearly 3,000 miles of existing and new fiber infrastructure will be connected over the next three years thanks to an $82.45 million grant announced by Gov. Kay Ivey and other state leaders Tuesday.

The grant is part of the $276 million commitment the Alabama Legislature made to broadband expansion out of the state’s ARPA funding.