Hayneville, AL 36040
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Broadband construction alone will not close the digital divide. Counties need people working together to help residents get connected, build skills, solve service problems, strengthen schools and workforce pathways, expand telehealth, and turn new broadband into opportunity.
Read the guide from top to bottom the first time, or jump directly to the section or printable tool you need. You do not have to do everything at once.
Build your County Baseline - the starting point for measuring progress - using the BEAD map, local data, community assets and resident experience.
Go to section →Six issues counties have in common - and practical broadband actions.
Go to section →Move from organizing to visible results without creating an unmanageable work plan.
Go to section →Keep unresolved locations, provider questions and community needs from disappearing.
Go to section →Look at a published county toolkit, real Task Forces and a community-broadband planning video.
Go to section →Use the forms at meetings or save editable versions for your county.
Go to downloads →
The Task Force should represent the people most affected by broadband gaps and the institutions and allies that can help solve them.
Digital Navigators are trusted guides who provide ongoing, individualized help with affordable internet, devices and digital skills. They can work through libraries, Extension, churches, nonprofits and other trusted community organizations.
For the Task Force: recruit and train volunteers and partner staff to serve as Digital Navigators; connect them to residents who need help; and make sure they have current information about internet options, devices, digital-skills resources and online services.
Framework provided by National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA).
A Task Force can lose momentum if meetings become reports without decisions. Keep the agenda short and make responsibilities visible.
5 min: Welcome and purpose
10 min: Review last action items
10 min: Map/provider/construction update
20 min: Work on one priority issue
10 min: Assign next actions
5 min: Confirm next meeting
WHO owns it? WHEN will it be finished?
The action tracker should be reviewed first at the next meeting.
Start with the map and the numbers, then add what residents and local institutions know and document as your County's Baseline - the starting point where you begin to measure your progress.
Watch: What Data Do You Need for Broadband Planning? →
Map status: The current SCABCD web map contains illustrative sample points, not official address-level BEAD assignments. Use it only as a demonstration until approved location data replaces the sample.
Broadband does not solve these problems by itself. The Task Force helps turn connectivity into access, skills, services, accountability and opportunity.
The working map contains 19,925 confirmed provider matches. Another 736 identified locations were still pending confirmation at publication, leaving questions about provider assignment and technology.
After decades of waiting for modern broadband, Black Belt communities entered BEAD with a strong expectation that the program's original preference for end-to-end fiber would finally bring high-speed, reliable fiber to as many eligible locations as possible. The 2025 federal restructuring removed the technology preference and required a technology-neutral, lowest-cost selection process. In the confirmed 15-county assignments, 62.2% are fiber and 37.8% are satellite. For residents assigned satellite, the immediate goal is to make the best use of the service available today while continuing to advocate for stronger, long-term infrastructure tomorrow.
Background: NTIA 2025 BEAD restructuring → Alabama BEAD materials →
Black Belt students already face educational and digital-access gaps. Rapid adoption of AI across education, training and occupations can widen that divide further if students are not equipped with digital literacy, practical computer skills and responsible AI skills.
Broadband makes the connection. Schools must turn that connection into learning and earning opportunity.
Teacher & school resources → Digital skills → AI resources →
Residential broadband maps do not fully capture the connectivity needs of farms and agricultural lands. Farm operations extend beyond the house or office to fields, barns, irrigation systems, equipment areas and other locations where mobile and wireless connectivity can be essential for precision agriculture.
Local governments are managing roads, water and sewer, emergency services, transportation and other infrastructure at the same time broadband construction is moving forward. Slow or unclear permitting can add avoidable delay.
Where hospitals and services have been reduced or closed and transportation is limited, telehealth can bring some care closer to residents through video visits, patient portals, public telehealth stations and remote monitoring.
The first goal is not to solve every county problem. It is to establish a working rhythm and produce a few visible results.
Confirm members and roles. Set meeting dates. Complete the baseline. Review the map. Choose 2-3 priorities.
Meet with providers or officials. Recruit and train the first Digital Navigators. Hold a resident help event. Start a skills, education, workforce or telehealth action.
Count what was completed. Escalate what is stuck. Tell residents what changed. Choose the next priorities.
If nobody follows up on an issue, it usually disappears between meetings. Use a simple tracker and review unresolved items every month.
Print individual tools for a meeting or download the complete pack. Editable Word versions are included for counties that want to type directly into the forms.
Other counties and Extension programs have already organized broadband committees, planning teams and public meetings. Use their experience as proof that this can be done - then adapt it to the Black Belt.
Start here: University of Wisconsin Extension, Broadband Planning: Prioritize and Focus Your Community Engagement. Open on YouTube →
The Task Force can remain useful after construction by supporting adoption, affordability, digital skills, education, AI readiness, telehealth, workforce development, small business and future infrastructure improvement.
Data note: October 2026 counts and technology shares are provisional. Check the latest state and provider information before relying on a location-level assignment.