McAllen Lauded For Boosting Wi-Fi Access

The city of McAllen is the recipient of a national award for expanding WiFi access in its community.

Javier Villalobos set out clear priorities when elected McAllen’s new mayor in mid-2021.

McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos is an advocate for expanding digital access in his city. (Courtesy)

“Water, sewer, public safety and the police department,” he said, recalling some of the key issues of his campaign.

What Villalobos didn’t figure is that education would emerge early on as a pressing issue in his tenure. More than 20,000 students in the McAllen school district were suddenly put into remote learning situations. Public health concerns in 2020 and 2021 resulted in school districts across the country closing schools and requiring students to stay home.

Stepping In & Stepping Up

Connecting teachers to homebound students via the internet became essential. In McAllen, that was a problem. Many parts of the city lacked Wi-Fi hotspots for students to connect with teachers. The McAllen school district initially tried to deal with the issue by purchasing Wi-Fi hotspots for homes without connectivity. It proved to be an inadequate solution.

McAllen’s city government stepped in to offer assistance. The city invested over $4 million to install Wi-Fi equipment on over 700 light poles in reaching over 40 neighborhoods. The city acted quickly in connecting students with teachers. For its community-friendly efforts, the city received the Digital Equity Project of the Year from the National Association of Telecommunication Officers and Advisors.

The city of McAllen has installed WiFi equipment on light poles and expanded free WiFi to over 40 neighborhoods.

The association lauded McAllen for “implementing no-cost-use, high-speed Internet access to close the digital divide in their region … and make progress in eliminating the regional digital divide.”

The NATOA is a professional membership organization that offers local governments support and insights in dealing with federal laws and judicial rulings involving technological issues. Mayor Villalobos said the award acknowledges the efforts of city staff in partnering with the school district to help students in a time of need.

“It’s nice to be appreciated,” Villalobos said. “The award recognizes our staff for their hard work and efforts in stepping up to help kids in our community.”

Exposing A Need

The byproduct of McAllen acting to help students is a city that’s more connected.

McAllen closed the digital divide in its city by installing WiFi equipment on existing light poles in the city. (Courtesy)

Villalobos said that’s especially true in many central and south side McAllen neighborhoods. School districts like the one in McAllen had to deal with sudden campus closures in 2020 that extended into 2021. The situation exposed the city’s overall lack of Internet connectivity.

“We found out pretty quickly that a lot of our kids didn’t have access to Wi-Fi,” the mayor said. “We looked at it and fortunately we were able to activate it quickly.”

The biggest gains in connectivity have come in neighborhoods south of Pecan Boulevard and Expressway 83, the mayor said, along with the city’s core downtown area and its nearby neighborhoods.

“We had updated fiber optics and broadband,” Villalobos said. “In being reactive to the COVID situation, we moved to improve Wi-Fi accessibility in the city. The situation showed that our educational systems need kids to have access to Wi-Fi beyond going to libraries to get connected.”

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