North Carolina Announces $86M Grant Program

August 13, 2024 – The North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Equity announced a notice of funding and guidance availability for the Stop-Gap Solutions program on Monday.

The program will provide $86 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to support the buildout of high-speed internet infrastructure deployments across the state. It will be made available to counties to use as matching funds for new Completing Access to Broadband program projects, North Carolina’s competitive grant program through ARPA, and broadband line-extension projects by internet service providers. 

“The goal of this program is two-fold – to help NCDIT leverage the remaining $283 million CAB program funds to continue helping counties connect their residents to crucial high-speed internet and to launch broadband line-extension projects to provide access to individuals, small pockets of households or businesses, community anchor institutions and state facilities,” said Nate Denny, NCDIT deputy secretary for Broadband and Digital Equity. 

Denny added that “collaboration between the state, local governments and internet service providers is central to this program and to our work in closing the digital divide.”

Only ISPs that were prequalified to participate via the 2023 Broadband Expansion and Access Request for Proposals will be allowed to participate in the Stop-Gap Solutions program.

In June, North Carolina announced a $112 million award to connect over 25,000 addresses in 19 counties to high-speed internet through the CAB program. Awardees included AT&T, Brightspeed, and Charter Communications.