Closing the Rural Broadband Access Gap on the Texas Border
City
South
State
County
Kinney & Maverick
District
TX-23
Funding
Department
Outcome
On the southwest edge of Texas, along the Mexico border, lie Kinney and Maverick counties. They are part of a 12-county region covered by Methodist Healthcare Ministries (MHM), running from Del Rio through Eagle Pass to Laredo. In this region, MHM is working to improve digital equity through grantmaking, capacity building, advocacy, and strategic partnerships with organizations focused on broadband access, digital opportunity, and infrastructure development.
Communities Unlimited (CU) has a long working history in the region, mostly in the water and wastewater sector. Those connections and contacts have benefited CU’s Broadband Team this past year as it worked in the region at MHM’s invitation. CU’s task was to find out what broadband work has been done, what is planned, and what is left.
Mark Pearson, CU Broadband Interstate Coordinator, says the gaps follow the money.
Why the Gaps Follow the Money
“Their private capital investments have historically happened where they knew growth was happening,” Pearson said. Rural telephone service reached nearly every farmhouse because of requirements and subsidies. Now some phone companies and electric co-ops are upgrading old copper lines to fiber, piecing together loans and grants to do it.
A Line To The House Is Not The Finish Line
“Even if you had good fiber optic internet in front of every home, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the folks in that home might be able to afford it, or have the digital skills to be able to connect and take advantage of it,” Pearson said.
Karlos Garza, a Digital Navigator with the Community Council of South Central Texas, another MHM partner, teaches computer skills across the region. He sees the same gap from the classroom.
“Internet is not cheap at all,” Garza said. “The common fix of plugging a modem into the wall and setting it in a window does not work in rural communities.”
His job is to give people a second chance at technology that moved on without them.
“Right now, technology is being pushed with no questions,” Garza said. “Technology is evolving really, really, really fast, and we don’t have anybody designated that is helping people to learn about this. My position is making sure that the people that were left behind by all this technology are given a second chance.”
Devices, Language, and the Fear of Clicking Wrong
Beyond skills, Garza lists other obstacles that stand in the way of a truly connected community, even once service arrives. Devices cost money, and free devices often can’t keep up with the network. Some users don’t know whether their phone is on Wi-Fi or cell service. Setup and installation steps assume people already know how, sometimes in a language they don’t speak. And many fear clicking the wrong button or sharing information with the wrong company.
These risks are larger than the embarrassment of not knowing.
“A lot of people are getting hacked, not knowing what to do,” Garza said. “They’re losing everything they earned during their lifetime.”
Others can’t apply for food stamps, Social Security, or other assistance once those processes move online.
When Connectivity Becomes a Health Issue
The ability to get online can also stand between a patient and the care they need. An estimated 235 of Texas’ 254 counties are designated health professional shortage areas, according to a 2025 Concordia University Texas study. In parts of West Texas, “seeing a doctor can require taking a full day off work and driving hours each way,” State Sen. César Blanco wrote earlier this year. Telehealth can close that distance, but only for people with a reliable connection and the skills to use it.
That is why MHM treats digital access as a social determinant of health.
What Connection Looks Like
Ask Garza what a truly connected community looks like, and he starts with the budget. “No family should have to decide between buying groceries or paying for the internet,” he said.
He wants devices that last more than a year, and someone people can call so getting stuck lasts a couple of hours or a day, not longer.
Pearson looks further out. A retired senior keeps a specialist appointment by telehealth instead of driving an hour. A high school student follows an interest into a community college course. A business that needs fiber can open in its owner’s hometown. He pictures local towns being able to say, “We’re fully fiber optic connected. We’re open for business.”
The classes, the maps and the coalitions all point to the same place. The internet has become a necessity, and rural communities can’t afford to be left behind. This mapping work is part of Communities Unlimited’s rural broadband work across the region, pairing infrastructure planning with the digital skills people need to use it.
“It’s not an option, it’s a need,” Garza said. “Having access to the internet is a need, a basic need for everybody and being left behind is not an option.”
The Bigger Picture
- Fiber lines alone don’t close the rural broadband gap
- Cost, skills, and devices keep connected homes offline
- Telehealth access depends on both internet and digital skills
- Partners now map broadband gaps alongside digital literacy needs
