Digital Divide

Advancing digital access, affordability and adoption to bring more people online. 

Click through to learn about our 2025 impact in action. 

Our Approach

Our Approach

At AT&T, our strategy to narrow the digital divide and connect more people is guided by three pillars:

• Access: Bringing high-speed internet to more people.
• Affordability: Lowering cost barriers and advocating for sound policy.
• Adoption: Supporting digital literacy for those new to the online world.

Expanding Access

When it comes to getting more people online, fostering access to connectivity solutions is key.

Connected Learning Centers

Our growing network of AT&T Connected Learning Centers™ (CLCs) brings under-resourced communities access to internet, Wi-Fi and computing devices as well as equipment and services donated by our collaborators, Dell Technologies and World Wide Technology. Housed within local community organizations, CLCs also offer digital literacy resources to help improve essential skills.

Rural and Underserved Areas

As of June 2025, only 71% of rural U.S. adults report having access to home broadband compared with 84% of suburban residents, according to the Pew Research Center. To address this discrepancy, we pursue public-private partnerships with the federal government, states and localities. Government broadband deployment grants serve as a multiplier of our own capital, helping AT&T extend our all-fiber networks, delivering high-speed services of at least one gigabit per second, to more of rural America and other underserved communities.

We also offer AT&T Internet Air, a fixed wireless home internet solution, in most areas of the U.S. where we don’t offer fiber internet. AT&T Internet Air is another way we are helping to bring robust home internet services to rural and other underserved communities.

Device Distributions

Limited access to large-screen devices such as computers can put families at a disadvantage when pursuing education and employment. We strategically partner with nonprofits to increase access to these types of technologies, including collaborating with organizations including Digitunity, Compudopt, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation and Human-I-T to distribute refurbished devices to people who need them most.

Enhancing Affordability

Low-cost broadband programs help bridge the digital divide for disadvantaged communities. Through Access from AT&T®, our targeted affordable home internet program, eligible households can connect with reliable AT&T Fiber speeds of up to 1 Gbps—including our most popular plan at $30 per month for up to 100 Mbps, where available.

To educate potential participants about Access from AT&T, we work with social service organizations and groups that work with low-income individuals and families, including those representing veterans, seniors and students. Eligible households can qualify for Access from AT&T based on their participation in any one of 18 federal need-based programs or by demonstrating their household’s income.

Driving Adoption

Bridging the digital divide means ensuring people have access to both digital technologies and the skills to use them effectively. We offer several free initiatives to help people build their digital skills and use the internet safely and responsibly.

Digital Literacy: Courses and Navigators

• We offer self-paced digital literacy courses for adults and families, developed with the Public Library Association (PLA). The PLA also provides in-person digital workshops through funding made possible by AT&T to local libraries across the nation. In addition to the PLA, we fund organizations to scale the delivery of digital literacy workshops across the nation in local communities.
• Through our Digital Navigator Program, launched with NPower, we support trusted guides who assist community members with ongoing, individualized support for accessing affordable and appropriate connectivity, devices and digital skills.

Digital Safety: AT&T ScreenReady

AT&T ScreenReady® features tips and tools to help parents and caregivers set parental controls on connected devices, navigate digital parenting issues and create the right online experience for their families.

Digital Learning: The Achievery℠

In addition to digital literacy and safety tools, we deliver educational programming through The Achievery℠, our free K-12 digital learning platform, with activities and lessons developed by leading educational organizations. The Achievery is aligned to academic standards and reviewed by education experts from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. While The Achievery can be accessed anywhere with an internet connection, we also provide that access in schools and our CLCs to help demonstrate the value of high-speed connectivity to those who don’t yet have it at home.

Advocating for Policy Development

Sound public policy is important to our efforts to bridge the digital divide. We advocate at all levels of government for solutions to help people get connected and support the future of high-performance networking. We oppose regulating internet rates, unfunded broadband discounts and unfunded service mandates because such regulations discourage investment and innovation and diminish the competitive choices available to consumers. Ultimately, such regulations address affordability only for some, making more services less affordable for most.

Digital Divide Governance

We have a defined structure to oversee our digital divide strategy.

• Board of Directors Governance and Policy Committee (GPC): Oversees and provides guidance and perspective, as deemed appropriate, to the Board and management on Corporate Responsibility (CR) strategy, policies, programs and reporting. Our Head of CR and other senior leaders present at GPC meetings throughout the year. Materials and discussions include but are not limited to digital divide, privacy, environmental stewardship, CR reporting and political and charitable contributions.
• Corporate Responsibility Governance Council: Comprises executive leaders responsible for business areas most closely linked to our corporate responsibility priorities.
• Cross-Business Collaboration: Representatives from Corporate Responsibility, Public Affairs, Public Policy, External and Legislative Affairs, Network Technology and Operations, Finance, Marketing and Communications business units collaborate to drive our digital divide strategy across the business.

Understanding the Efficacy of Our Actions

Measuring and understanding how AT&T’s digital divide efforts impact our business and society is important to us. We collaborated with Westat, a third-party research firm, to conduct a Social Return on Investment study, providing insights into the social and economic benefits generated by our digital divide efforts from January 1, 2021, through December 31, 2024.

Key findings include:

• The social benefit generated by AT&T’s digital divide program investments was $294 million, with a projected reach of 2.3 million people.
• For every $1 invested in communities, AT&T generated $2.47 in social value — equivalent to a return of almost 250%.
• Each distributed device generated outcomes valued at approximately $509 per recipient. In total, the social value created by the distributed computers was projected to be $193 million.
• Digital literacy workshops reached over 230,000 people, generating $48 million in social value (17% of the total social value due to the large number of people served).
• Donated internet hotspots and The Achievery generated $370 and $277 per person, respectively, compared with $211 per person for digital literacy workshops.

These metrics provide valuable insights that help inform our approach to bridging the digital divide.

Impact In Action

Our 2025 Impact in Action

This year, we continued to progress toward our commitments to narrow the digital divide by investing $5 billion by 2030 and to help 25 million people get and stay connected to affordable, high-speed internet access and digital resources.

2025 Impact: Expanding Access

Distributing Devices

In events across 39 states, we distributed more than 39,300 devices to students and families who needed them most. From 2021 through the end of 2025, we worked with more than 100 nonprofit organizations to distribute more than 194,000 hot spots and devices, impacting more than 431,000 people.

Scaling Impact with Compudopt

We expanded our longstanding relationship with Compudopt by launching an in-store e-waste collection program to help divert computers and tablets from landfills. For every 10 pounds of e-waste collected, we donated a refurbished device to someone in need. We collected 10,200 pounds of e-waste from 103 stores across Texas and the Southeast, surpassing our goal of 10,000 pounds. The 2025 campaign will support the donation of approximately 1,000 laptops to families in need. We plan to expand this program to an additional 100 stores in 2026. Read more about the collection program in our Circularity issue brief.

After severe flooding in Texas, we redirected donations to 320 South Texas stores to help those impacted, with all dollars going to provide computers to those in need. In collaboration with Compudopt, we provided 265 refurbished laptops to Center Point Independent School District students and 15 Kerr County families. Learn more about AT&T’s disaster relief efforts after the Texas floods in our Community Engagement & Investment issue brief.

In 2025, we aligned our various customer donation opportunities, including in-store donation and online trade-in, with our commitment to bridging the digital divide. These efforts raised more than $540,000 in 2025 to support Compudopt and our shared goal of distributing technology to those in need.

Supporting Rural Connectivity

In 2025, AT&T, Digitunity and Brian Whitacre of Oklahoma State University released a report, Supportive and Sustainable Device Ecosystems for Rural America, to share key data and insights on rural digital access. The report details actionable strategies following a 15-month initiative with partners across Mississippi and Arizona. Key findings from this research include:

• ~14% of U.S. households (2023) have no desktop or laptop at home.
• 10% are “smartphone dependent,” relying only on smartphones for online access.
• 4% have no computing device at all.

Additionally, AT&T collaborated with Digitunity, the Mississippi Broadband Association and local community organizations to support rural communities in Mississippi through device supply, device deployment and digital skilling. This collaboration focused on broadband affordability, training and large-screen device ownership, specifically in Warren and Coahoma counties.

Connected Learning Centers (CLCs)

To support our goal of opening at least 100 CLCs by the end of 2027, we committed to launching 25 new CLCs in 2025, a goal that we met and exceeded with the launch of 26. This brings the total number of CLCs to 86, including centers in six new states. Altogether, they serve more than 158,500 people nationwide.

In our existing CLCs, we help organizations serve their communities through internet access and technology that help people complete schoolwork, apply for jobs, research colleges, find housing, manage healthcare and communicate with loved ones. We also provide professional development support, including train-the-trainer sessions and digital navigation workshops, while enhancing revenue capacity and organizational sustainability.

Mobile Connectivity Center

We continued to use our Mobile Connectivity Center™ (MCC) in 2025, when not deployed to natural disaster events, to help support our digital literacy efforts. Throughout the year, we deployed the 48-foot trailer, equipped with devices and connectivity, to five local Parent Teacher Associations’ “Ready, Tech, Go” events, providing lessons to kids on The Achievery platform while their parents learned digital safety tips.

Learn how we’re leveraging our MCC to support communities during emergencies and natural disasters in our Community Engagement & Investment issue brief.

Expanding Our Network

Throughout 2025, we continued to expand our fiber and wireless networks to reach more people across the country. At the end of 2025, our fiber network reached nearly 32 million consumer and business locations. Learn more about our network in our Network Resilience issue brief.

2025 Impact: Enhancing Affordability

We are committed to helping people who have low incomes afford high-speed internet access through our targeted Access from AT&T program. Because households have different connectivity needs, in 2025, we expanded our Access from AT&T suite offers to enable eligible consumers to save $20 per month on fiber speeds ranging from 300 Mbps to 1 gigabyte.

We continued to expand our work with Human-I-T, which serves as an affiliate seller for Access from AT&T, helping promote and register participants for the program through online forms and at device distribution events. Eligible students and families also receive a full year of AT&T Fiber at no cost to them, thanks to a new philanthropic program through Compudopt.

2025 Progress: Driving Adoption

Throughout 2025, we continued to reach more people with digital literacy resources. The Achievery welcomed more than 125,500 new users and nearly 14,600 new registered subscribers, providing them with access to over 1,600 learning units that help make learning exciting and complex topics easier to understand. New lessons include Moments That Matter, a series developed by the National Medal of Honor Museum to teach values such as integrity and courage. We also launched a new classroom feature on the platform for educators to build lesson plans and create virtual classrooms where they can engage with their students.

In 2025, The Achievery earned the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Seal, a certification for high-quality product design solutions that enable and guide high-quality learning. We also launched State Standards, a tool to help teachers align lesson plans with state-level standards. By the end of 2025, we made the tool available in five states, with plans to expand further in 2026.

To deliver digital tools to older adults in 2025, we partnered with three nonprofits:

• Cyber-Seniors, through which teenagers taught internet basics to more than 2,870 older adults.
• National Council on Aging, which connected with approximately 6,000 older adults through workshops and online courses.
• Older Adults Technology Services from AARP, which provided nearly 42,700 older adults with accessible digital learning resources through its Senior Planet program.

Driving AI Education

AT&T recognizes that, as technology rapidly evolves, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a foundational skill for participation in the digital economy. To incorporate AI literacy tools and training across our initiatives, in 2025, we:

• Offered 23 AI-focused learning units, in English and Spanish, on The Achievery.
• Hosted workshops with nonprofit partners, such as EMPOWER and the Dallas Innovation Alliance, to teach AI awareness and understanding.
• Collaborated with Washington University to teach educators how to navigate, use and integrate AI into their curriculum and classrooms.
• Integrated Career Coach, an AI-powered career planning tool from Career Village, into the resources available at CLCs.

2025 Progress: Policy Advocacy

Throughout 2025, we continued advocating for:

• The modernization of the federal universal service programs and how they are funded for today’s internet world, to ensure the programs efficiently target 21st-century connectivity goals and are sustainable for the next generation.
• A federal government solution to bring more spectrum to market so providers like AT&T can continue delivering seamless, affordable customer experiences.
• A smart approach to administering the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program to responsibly invest taxpayer money, stimulate sustainable private investment and drive participation from experienced, capable infrastructure providers.

In 2025, states ran competitive application processes to award more than $20 billion in broadband deployment funding from the BEAD program. The federal government is now in the process of finalizing these grants, which are also subject to contract execution. AT&T recently signed the first such state contract, with the State of Louisiana, to turn more than $21 million in BEAD funding into connectivity networks that will help unlock opportunity for the state’s residents. We look forward to delivering these and other BEAD deployment grant commitments and remain committed to helping close the country’s remaining availability gap.

Related Key Topics

Circularity

• Circularity Framework
• Product Life Cycle
• Operational Waste

Community Engagement & Investment

• Philanthropic Giving
• Volunteering
• Disaster Response

Human Capital Management

• Employee Listening
• Compensation & Benefits
• Training & Development

Human Rights

• Human Rights Issues
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Reporting Grievances

Network Resilience

• Network Expansion
• Driving Resilience
• Business Continuity

View All Key Topics