PHARR, Texas — In what local officials are calling a "monumental" step toward completely eliminating the digital divide in South Texas, the City of Pharr has expanded its municipally owned fiber-optic network to reach hundreds of public housing residents.
By leveraging federal funds in a unique partnership with the Pharr Housing Authority, the city is positioning its "Pharr Connect" broadband initiative as a blueprint for municipal infrastructure both statewide and nationally.
Cynthia Garza-Reyes, deputy city manager for the City of Pharr, spoke with the Guardian about the city’s aggressive rollout strategy, the economic development implications of underground fiber, and why national organizations are now looking to Pharr as a model for digital equity.
"Today has really been monumental for us. We've taken Pharr Connect to another level," Garza-Reyes said, noting that Pharr is part of a select handful of communities nationwide that completely own their broadband infrastructure.
The latest expansion is fueled by a $700,000 reallocation of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, which the city directed toward covering infrastructure fees for local housing authority complexes. The initiative targets three distinct housing authority venues, representing approximately 300 units.
According to Garza-Reyes, the funding pivot directly aligns with the long-term vision of Mayor Dr. Ambrosio Hernandez and the city commission to treat high-speed internet as an essential utility rather than a luxury.
"At the end of the day, it has been a goal of the commission and Mayor Hernandez to make sure every resident has the ability to be connected," Garza-Reyes stated. "Being able to provide an affordable product not only now but long term has been a goal of the city since we started."
The pricing model for Pharr Connect effectively undercuts traditional private internet service providers, offering a $25 monthly tier for 500 megabytes and a $50 tier for one gigabyte.
Furthermore, a strategic partnership with the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District (PSJA ISD) ensures that any household with a student receives the one-gigabyte service entirely free of charge.
"We’ve taken the main concern that the mayor, commission, and school board had years ago of connecting their students, and we've eliminated that," Garza-Reyes said. "They no longer have to go to a Burger King or sit on the doorsteps of a high school in order to get a connection."
Over the past two years, the municipal network has achieved significant penetration across the city’s 24,000 households, successfully connecting nearly 13,000 residential accounts.
While acknowledging that private industry has traditionally dominated the telecommunications space, Garza-Reyes emphasized that the city's focus remains local. "For us, it's never been about competing with other services; it's about providing the right service for our residents."
Beyond competitive pricing, city officials point to network reliability and hyper-local customer service as their primary advantages. Garza-Reyes noted that during recent severe South Texas thunderstorms, Pharr Connect's underground infrastructure remained resilient while competing private networks flickered out.
"The thing that has not gone out is Pharr Connect," she said. "We see that on our social network platforms. Where others who have had other connections have unfortunately had issues, we remain the strongest."
While initially conceived as a residential equity program, Pharr Connect has rapidly evolved into a major asset for the Pharr Economic Development Corporation (EDC) as it fields inquiries from large-scale manufacturing and enterprise operations eye-ing the Rio Grande Valley.
Garza-Reyes, who handles a substantial portfolio of economic development initiatives for the city, explained that industrial and enterprise clients are increasingly demanding true, underground fiber-optic cables over older coiling architectures.
"Definitely, it is an economic development tool," Garza-Reyes said. "What we have told a lot of our enterprise-type companies is fine, you may have a primary supplier, but put us as a secondary source and see what happens. What we are seeing is when we're in there as a secondary, they end up choosing us as the primary."
As neighboring cities in Hidalgo County watch Pharr’s infrastructure success, local IT officials report receiving frequent inquiries from residents and business owners just outside Pharr city limits—in municipalities like McAllen, San Juan, Edinburg, and Hidalgo—asking if they can hook into the system or carry the service with them when they relocate.
When asked about the likelihood of Pharr scaling its broadband network regionally across the upper Rio Grande Valley, Garza-Reyes maintained a disciplined, city-first stance for the immediate future.
"I think, for now, our main responsibility is to the City of Pharr and its residents," Garza-Reyes told the Rio Grande Guardian Business Journal. "Once we've been able to close that digital divide, then at the end of the day, the opportunities are endless, and that's a story that still could be written a lot of ways."
For now, the strategy is bringing national accolades to the border city. Pharr Connect has recently been showcased on both state and national telecom platforms, moving from an organization seeking visibility to one being actively courted for panels.
"Before, when we started, we were kind of tapping, 'Can we be on your panel?' But now they're asking us," Garza-Reyes said. "In the City of Pharr, as you know, we not only like to do things differently, but we like to provide models that can be used locally, statewide, and nationwide."
