Broadband Adoption in Western North Carolina

Western North Carolina faces connectivity challenges.

My new research published today by the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, Understanding Where and How to Support Broadband Adoption in Western North Carolina, examines how patterns of technology adoption and use vary at the county level. Understanding Where and How offers profiles of 18 counties in North Carolina, looking at not only the adoption of digital tools but also variations in socioeconomic and demographic factors. This broad exploration—looking at digital connectivity metrics, economic metrics, and community skills capacity—aims at helping stakeholders formulate strategies to close gaps.

The county profiles present metrics in the following categories:

DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY METRICS: These metrics focus on technology adoption, using American Community Survey (ACS) data that illuminates relative scarcity of access to digital tools. This includes the share of households with no broadband internet subscription services at home, the share of households that rely solely on cellular data plans for service, and the share of households reliant on satellite internet services for home access.

ECONOMIC METRICS: Service affordability is a well-known barrier to subscribing to internet service plans, and county-level data shows where affordability challenges are likely to be greatest. These metrics include the share of households below 125 percent of the federal poverty level, the unemployment rate, and the percentage of households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). A high incidence of these characteristics means that households face challenges affording and maintaining broadband subscriptions and computing devices.

COMMUNITY SKILLS CAPACITY: Another barrier to broadband adoption is digital skills. Households may have the means to subscribe, but not the know-how to fully take advantage of what the internet offers. Several metrics are well known to be correlated with digital skills. Research indicates that people age 65 or older and those with only a high school education may need assistance to develop digital skills; people with a disability are often at a disadvantage for meaningful broadband use because of inaccessibility of hardware, software, and services.

As is the case with much of rural America, Western North Carolina has shortfalls in quality broadband infrastructure—either a lack of wireline service entirely or poor-quality copper-based service, such as digital subscriber line service. These deficiencies in infrastructure, along with affordability of service, contribute to low at-home broadband subscription rates in the region.

This research was done on behalf of the Blue Ridge Broadband Alliance, a coalition of community leaders, organizations, and advocates working together to build digital opportunity and access in Western North Carolina. A comparison of the 18 Western North Carolina counties that the Blue Ridge Broadband Alliance focuses on shows:

• 84 percent of households in the 18 counties have broadband of any type (which means, for the most part, either a wireline or cellular data plan subscription), compared with 89 percent for the rest of North Carolina counties.
• For wireline subscriptions at home, the gaps are larger. Some 66 percent of those in the 18 counties have subscriptions of this sort, compared with 76 percent for all other North Carolina households.
• Even cellular data plan subscriptions show gaps, with 77 percent of residents in the 18 counties having subscriptions to such service, while that figure is 82 percent for all other North Carolina households.

While this research is obviously focused on this key region of North Carolina, but my colleagues and I at the Benton Institute believe it could be a model for other regions and states. We believe that telling stories about the kinds of barriers residents face in accessing and using broadband meaningfully is important and helpful to policymakers. Identifying barriers through data like this also points to the kinds of support that might be most impactful.

John B. Horrigan, PhD, is a Benton Senior Fellow. He is a national expert on technology adoption, digital inclusion, and evaluating the outcomes and impacts of benefits designed to promote communications technology adoption and use. Horrigan served at the Federal Communications Commission as a member of the leadership team for the development of the National Broadband Plan. Additionally, as an Associate Director for Research at the Pew Research Center, he focused on libraries and their impact on communities, as well as technology adoption patterns and open government data.

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all people in the U.S. have access to competitive, High-Performance Broadband regardless of where they live or who they are. We believe communication policy – rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity – has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities.

© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2025. Redistribution of this email publication – both internally and externally – is encouraged if it includes this copyright statement.

For subscribe/unsubscribe info, please email headlinesATbentonDOTorg

Kevin Taglang
Executive Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Institute
for Broadband & Society
1041 Ridge Rd, Unit 214
Wilmette, IL 60091
847-220-4531
headlines AT benton DOT org

Share this edition:

Broadband Delivers Opportunities and Strengthens Communities