Tag Archive for: #highspeedinternet

Franklin County Plans To Add High-Speed Internet To 2,374 More Locations

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  • Information courtesy of Franklin County Public Information Officer James F. Hicks III

 

More than 2,300 locations in Franklin County will be added to the growing list of places getting high speed broadband internet access.

Through new Completing Access to Broadband grant funding, Brightspeed – formerly CenturyLink and Lumen – will begin deploying high speed fiber-to-the-home internet to 2,374 locations.  Earlier this month, the N.C. Dept. of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Equity announced a $5.6 million award to the county. In April, the county agreed to spend $2 million in ARPA funds to match the funding requirements.

The final county match comes to $1,962,728.95, according to Franklin County Public Information Officer James F. Hicks III. Once completed, in October 2026, about 50 percent of the eligible locations in the county will have the high-speed capability.

“I fully support this overwhelmingly.  We have got to get this service out to the underserved parts of the County,” Board of Commissioners Chair Harry Foy said. “Everybody needs internet like electricity, water and sewer. You have got to have it.”

Franklin County has benefited from broadband grant funding in the past several years. Two previous awards under the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) allowed Brightspeed to deploy fiber to more than 3,400 locations in Franklin County.

A map identifying the areas awarded under the CAB program can be found on the county’s website where information on the county’s broadband efforts can also be found.

The CAB program provides an opportunity for individual N.C. counties to partner with NCDIT to fund broadband deployment projects in unserved areas of each county. N.C. Session Law 2021-180 appropriated $400 million from ARPA for this program. NCDIT awarded CAB grant funds to connect nearly 26,000 households and businesses in 19 counties to high-speed internet.

Warren County part of internet pilot program

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Students in Warren County will soon be able to access high-speed internet via satellite technology, thanks to a pilot program aimed at supporting remote learning through improving internet access, according to information from Warren County Schools and the Gov. Roy Cooper’s office.

Warren County joins Hyde and Swain counties in a pilot program funded through the CARES Act, with additional support from several other N.C. agencies. It allows students to access Starlink internet service through SpaceX.

“Many students in the county are still without high-speed internet service at a time where having that connectivity is especially critical to their success,” stated Delores Pulliam, Warren County Schools Chief Finance Officer, in the written statement.  “We hope this pilot will be a much-needed lifeline for our K-12 students and their families.”

Starlink provides high-speed internet service via Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite technology, which BIO has determined could be a viable option to reach residents in remote areas. Through the pilot, school districts will be able to test the feasibility of the service for K-12 students who live in areas with no broadband infrastructure or reliable cellular service.

The pilot is funded by $200,000 in CARES Act Funding from the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT) and $64,000 in CARES Act Funding from NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, on behalf of Hometown Strong. This funding will support this initiative in researching, analyzing, and providing recommendations regarding the use of satellite technologies that may help reduce the homework gap as well as improve rural healthcare and further rural economic development.

The Friday Institute at NC State University is leading the CARES Act-funded program, with additional support from the North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE), and the Broadband Infrastructure Office (BIO). Besides funding, the partners are also assisting the school districts with implementing the “Satellite Internet Technologies for Student Connectivity Pilot,” which will allow students to access Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s (SpaceX) Starlink internet service.

“Our students need high-speed internet to succeed not only in these challenging times but into the future,” Governor Roy Cooper said. “Innovative programs like this pilot with SpaceX can connect students to high-quality internet service to help with remote learning, and we are excited for it to expand.”