North Carolina Announces $112M for Broadband Expansion

July 1, 2024 – The North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Equity announced on Monday an additional $112 million award to connect 25,903 households and businesses in 19 counties to high-speed internet through the Completing Access to Broadband program.

The program fosters a partnership between counties and NCDIT to identify areas in need of high-speed service that reliably meets or exceeds speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 100 Mbps upload.

The funding was allocated to meet these requirements through NCDIT’s partnerships with prequalified internet service providers. Selected broadband providers contributed nearly $26 million, counties provided more than $25 million, and the federal American Rescue Plan funded $61 million. Awardees include AT&T, Brightspeed, and Charter Communications.

“We are excited so many counties and internet service providers have partnered with us on the CAB program,” said NCDIT Deputy Secretary for Broadband and Digital Equity Nate Denny. “These awarded projects will help us make significant progress on closing the state’s digital divide.”

By late July, NCDIT will reveal dashboards detailing progress on programs funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act.  The additional funds, nearly $404 million in Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology grants and previous CAB funding from 2022-2024, aim to connect 161,000 North Carolina households and businesses to high-speed internet.

In June, NCDIT announced a $67 million award to provide high-speed internet to more than 15,800 addresses across 15 counties through the CAB program. Since 2022, CAB has provided funding to ISPs to partner with North Carolina counties as part of Cooper's goal to expand broadband access across the state and connect more than 160,000 addresses to high-speed internet.