Inside North Carolina’s Push to Close Rural Broadband Gaps

Caught in the crossfire of continued budget negotiations between North Carolina’s General Assembly and Gov Roy Cooper (D-NC) is the expansion of a program funding last-mile broadband infrastructure in the state. Cooper vetoed the budget passed by the Legislature in June. The grant program is one of many facets in the Broadband Infrastructure Office’s (BIO) mission to facilitate high-speed Internet access statewide by June 2021.

North Carolina's Broadband Infrastructure Office's (BIO) mission is to facilitate high-speed Internet access statewide by June 2021. NC State Chief Information Officer Eric Boyette said the NC broadband task force is working to address is the Dig Once policy outlined by Gov Roy Cooper (D-NC), which aims to reduce the scale and number of excavations related to road projects for installation and maintenance of broadband infrastructure in rights-of-way. Boyette said BIO’s greatest achievement, so far, has been the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grant program, which has made $10 million available for less affluent areas of the state. Of the 19 counties deemed Tier 1 by the Dept of Commerce due to the area’s state of economic distress, 11 have penned contracts with companies to expand high-speed broadband. The program, in its current form, will provide Internet access to 9,800 homes and about 600 businesses, which include agricultural operations, libraries, schools and hospitals. “The biggest challenge we’ve had is securing funding. If you look at our state, we have a large amount of our citizens and our residents who live in a rural area, so funding for our Internet service providers [is limited],” Boyette said. “We understand it’s a business. They’re in business for a reason and if they can’t have a return on their investment then it’s very difficult. I think that’s where our grant program is important. We’re glad to see [Tier 1] get funded and be able to hopefully fill that void for that last mile and to help with the adoption rate.” BIO wants to broaden its efforts, but must wait for a budget to be approved first.