For Gabriella Diaz, finding a reliable internet connection in Gainesville can sometimes mean leaving home to do so.
Diaz, 18, said she often studies at Barnes & Noble in Butler Plaza because she enjoys the environment, but she also relies on hotspots and public Wi-Fi to stay connected.
“To be honest, since I’ve been here, I’ve been struggling to find Wi-Fi in my apartment and places near it,” she said. “There are dead zones where I can’t connect.”
Gainesville’s internet landscape is changing, with Spectrum taking over Cox Communications’ operations in Alachua County after acquiring the company in a $34.5 billion merger completed in August.
The county is also trying to help the thousands of households within its borders that still lack reliable high-speed internet access – with a $62 million broadband initiative that includes multiple projects and is mostly funded by state and federal sources.
One of the projects involves a $12.55 million broadband deployment assistance grant bestowed to Kinetic by Windstream, an internet service provider, to bring underground fiber to over 4,500 rural households said Ethan Long, a data analyst with the county’s initiative.
The project focuses on areas just north and south of High Springs, just east and south of Waldo and in the southeastern corner of the county, Long said.
“That project was specifically done in order to bring fiber internet to those locations,” he said.
The county defines reliable broadband as internet with download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and upload speeds of 20 megabits per second. Locations with slower speeds are considered underserved or unserved, depending on how much they fall below that standard.
In a 2024 broadband expansion proposal, the county identified four target areas lacking reliable connectivity, including East Waldo and Earleton, and set plans to extend broadband access to 95% of households and businesses in those underserved areas.
Autumn Tauro, 48, works Friday mornings at Classic Café, a family owned diner on U.S. Highway 301 in Waldo. The diner uses Kinetic and experiences outages that interfere with its credit card payment system, especially when it rains, Tauro said.
“It does go out a lot here, and it affects payment,” she said.
Before the Cox-Spectrum merger, CoxCom LLC received six broadband grant awards totaling $21.7 million for projects and intended to bring access to 4,059 unserved and underserved locations in Alachua County, according to FloridaCommerce records. The proposed service areas include Gainesville, Waldo, Archer and High Springs, among other municipalities.
Cox had received public funding for broadband expansion in the county before the transition to Spectrum and the county has reported that more than 80% of the broadband assistance grant is complete. Long said the county does not expect Spectrum’s arrival to significantly change its broadband efforts.
“We’re expecting those to be finished up this fall, so that’s going to be great,” he said. “A lot of them have already been served in our community.”
Long also said the county has become better at identifying which households still need better internet service, allowing it to direct funding toward areas that need it most.
“We really do know what internet each household has, so we’re really able to bring the dollars to where they need to go,” he said.
For Sophie Arteaga, a UF sophomore studying applied physiology and kinesiology living in Gainesville, reliable internet also means having access to places where she can connect outside her home. Arteaga, 19, said she chooses to study at Foxtail Coffee Co. in Butler Town Center, partly because of its internet practicalities.
“Access to free public Wi-Fi is important,” she said. “At some coffee shops, you have to buy a drink to get the password, but Foxtail’s is free, and that’s why I like coming here.”
Stroker Hargrove, 33, has lived in a trailer behind Classic Café in Waldo for about six weeks. He said a major challenge in Waldo is the lack of wireless coverage, and that he had used Starlink, which worked well for him, but he switched because of the cost. Saying he primarily needs internet access so his son can use his PlayStation, Hargrove later tried T-Mobile, but said the service did not work properly. He is now working on switching to AT&T.
“I don’t have internet right now, but I will this weekend,” Hargrove said.
As the county works through its expansion projects, Spectrum is also evaluating its existing network and areas that still lack reliable service, according to Geoff Banning, Spectrum’s regional vice president of operations for the Florida market.
Banning said customers in the newly acquired markets do not need to make an immediate change. He said he has worked in field operations for more than 30 years, spending nearly all of that time in Florida. He also said Spectrum’s goal is to give Gainesville customers more options rather than require them to change their current services.
“Locally, we’re really focused on improving the reliability of our current network in capacity and speed, but are also identifying any remaining unserved or underserved locations in Alachua County and Gainesville,” he said.
Beyond network expansion, Banning said Spectrum is looking to become involved in the communities where its employees live and work.
“We’re excited to not only offer our products and pricing to our customers in Gainesville and the surrounding areas, but also be able to engage in the communities and the small businesses,” Banning said.
Long said many of the remaining unserved locations are being addressed through grants administered by the Florida Office of Broadband. He said some of those projects can take years to complete because of the contracts and stipulations involved.
One program is the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program, or BEAD.
“The initial strand of BEAD was supposed to serve 100% of residents, which is basically impossible, but 99% wasn’t,” Long said.
Long said there will be a second round of BEAD funding, but a timeline has not been advertised because the first round is still in contract stages.
“It’s a big puzzle piece and we’re putting it all together,” Long said. “We’re just trying to get internet out to everybody.”
