Broadband Director: North Carolina Has an Edge, Thanks to Strong Broadband Heritage

In a nation where some states didn’t have broadband offices until a year or so ago, North Carolina and the state’s director of broadband infrastructure, Angela “Angie” Bailey, are relative broadband veterans. The state has been involved in broadband for 20 years and Bailey has been the broadband director since 2021—a heritage that should benefit the state as the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) rural broadband funding program unfolds. Beginning in 2018, North Carolina allocated $15 million per year for broadband, Bailey explained. In 2021, she said, the state allocated $1 billion of federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to broadband. “In North Carolina, with our ARPA and BEAD allocation, we anticipate having enough funding to reach all unserved and underserved locations, mostly with fiber,” Bailey said.