North Carolina Announces $67M ARPA Funds for Broadband Expansion

June 18, 2024 – The North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Equity announced Monday a $67 million award to provide high-speed internet to more than 15,800 addresses across 15 counties through the Completing Access to Broadband program. 

The CAB program, which was appropriated $400 million from the American Rescue Plan, facilitates collaboration between counties and NCDIT to identify areas lacking internet access, solicit proposals from prequalified internet service providers, and swiftly award contracts to bridge the digital divide. Selected providers are required to deliver speeds of 100 megabits per second for both downloads and uploads.

“Through these awards, more North Carolinians will be able to access affordable and reliable high-speed internet so they can participate in our increasingly digital world,” said Gov. Roy Cooper. “I appreciate the partnership among NCDIT, county leaders and broadband providers in helping close our state’s digital divide.”

This new investment adds to the more than $356 million already allocated through the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology grants. From Tuesday's substantial investment, the division granted awards to Brightspeed, Charter Communications, Windstream North Carolina, and several other local ISPs. 

“By partnering directly with county leaders, we can focus on their individual community needs and together make decisions that will benefit their constituents,” said NCDIT Secretary and State Chief Information Officer Jim Weaver. “Thanks to our extensive mapping, previous prequalification process and internet service providers’ responsiveness, we posted these counties’ scopes of work in March and April and worked with them to make awards for new broadband projects in less than three months.”  

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 140,000 addresses to high-speed internet.