Broadband is as important to rural communities as water, natural gas, sewer, and electricity.
All rural communities want and understand the need for broadband, but most are unsure of how to acquire and to finance broadband. While broadband feasibility and accessibility studies are available, most rural communities cannot afford the high cost to complete the study.

To alleviate this issue for rural communities, we partnered with the cities of Livingston, and York, Alabama; also on the team were Scott D. Woods, Esq., Don Williams, Michael Burns from the @US Department of Commerce, NTIA and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) CUPP, and The University of West Alabama to develop a Rural Broadband Strategies course. This national pilot study utilizes federal work study in order for students to help solve community issues and has been labeled “The most important course in CUPP history.” Specifically, this experiential learning course trains undergraduate and graduate students to develop rural broadband strategies in communities that cannot afford to hire broadband experts. Today we presented our project to our federal, state and local partners to great success!