Tired of waiting for broadband, rural communities are tapping grants, partnerships to get modern internet

Outside the Interstate 25 and 70 corridors in Colorado, where great distances and low populations make providing internet more expensive, there can be wide variations of service and coverage. State officials say 87% of rural Colorado has access to broadband, but that number comes with asterisks. State and federal officials acknowledge that more precise mapping is needed to pinpoint which areas need to be brought up to speed. 

“You can look at maps and say, ‘Oh, this community is served.’ Well, the community within a quarter mile of the community center may be served, but the folks outside of that are either underserved or completely unserved,” said Nate Walowitz, the regional broadband program director at the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments. The council is among the public agencies across Colorado leveraging state and federal grants and building partnerships to deliver the reliable, high-speed internet they agree is a necessity, not a luxury, in the 21st century. They say up-to-date service is key to growing the economy in rural communities and luring people looking to escape the congestion and rising costs of the Front Range and mountain hot spots.