North Carolina Announces $22 Million in Broadband Grant Awards

April 7, 2025 – North Carolina announced on Tuesday more than $22 million in broadband grant awards. 

The money comes from the state’s Completing Access to Broadband program, funded by $400 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. With last week’s awards, North Carolina has handed out about $140 million in CAB grants to connect more than 57,000 homes and businesses.

The new projects are set to get broadband to 10,810 locations across 14 counties. Brightspeed will be serving the lion’s share of those locations – more than 8,300 – with regional provider SkyBest scooping up 805 and a local electric cooperative scoring 576 locations.

Zito Media, local ISP Comporium, and Frontier also won awards. Altogether, the ISPs are putting up nearly $9.6 million toward project costs, according to the state.

The dollar amounts hadn’t been posted publicly Monday, but the state said its broadband grant awards database would be updated this month. 

North Carolina’s broadband office said it was planning on announcing more CAB awards every two weeks throughout April. The program requires speeds of at least 100 megabits per second download and upload. Most awarded projects are slated to finish construction in 2026.

“No matter where you live in the state, you should have access to high-speed internet,” North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said in a statement. “Broadband is critical to providing more economic opportunity to every corner of the state, and I am proud to create a stronger and more connected North Carolina for every person and small business owner.”