A new partnership between Facebook and a statewide nonprofit is trying to fix a problem laid bare during the pandemic -- many in West Texas do not have access to high-speed internet.
Facebook and the Lonestar Education and Research Network, or LEARN, are teaming up to ensure libraries in Muleshoe, Morton and Friona will now have faster internet. The towns are benefiting from a fiber internet system Facebook built between Albuquerque and Fort Worth. LEARN helped identify opportunities to help along the line.
This new fiber access allows them to deliver services to enable 10 to 100 times higher speed connectivity for the three libraries.
In the three counties the libraries are located in, it's estimated that a total of 1,470 households do not have broadband internet access, according to the latest data from Connected Nation Texas.
Dana Hefflin is a librarian in Morton. She says a lot of kids in the area only have internet access at school or at the library. She says that means the eight public computers she has can get bogged down quickly.
"Any time I had two or three streaming, playing games or anything, it shut me out of my computer. I couldn't do anything," Hefflin said. "So this has been fantastic for us."
LEARN and Facebook hope this initiative will provide a model for future efforts to improve broadband access.
Have a news tip? Email Sarah Self-Walbrick at saselfwa@ttu.edu. Follow her reporting on Twitter @SarahFromTTUPM.
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