MCNC will celebrate the completion of the Golden LEAF Rural Broadband Initiative (GLRBI) by hosting Broadband for the Future on Monday, Aug. 12, from 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

This event was postponed in June in deference to the funeral services for former Gov. Jim Holshouser.

For those who may have registered previously for the June event will need to register online once again for the new date. The event is free and open to the public and the current agenda is now available.

MCNC is a technology non-profit that builds, owns, and operates NCREN. For more than a quarter century, a growing number of research, education, non-profit health care, and other community institutions in North Carolina have connected to NCREN to utilize this leading-edge broadband highway. Today, NCREN serves more than 450 of these institutions, including all K-20 public education in the state.

Next month’s event will leverage NCREN and highlight the immense reach of the GLRBI by staging connected events in (Asheville, Charlotte, Elizabeth City, and Research Triangle Park). The goal is to show what’s possible for NCREN users today and showcase the possibilities of a future where bandwidth scales to any need. The event also is a chance to thank the many who helped make this successful project possible.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 appropriated $7.2 billion to broadband investments throughout the United States. The GLRBI is funded through two ARRA grants administered through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

The total project required significant matching funds, which MCNC was able to obtain through private investments that also included a $24 million grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation and a $10 million dollar commitment from MCNC’s endowment. No state tax dollars were utilized as matching funds for either of MCNC awards.

MCNC also has made additional investments in the project meaning that more than 100 percent of the project’s grant value was expended with private-sector vendors. These vendors won competitive bids to complete engineering work, supply outside plant equipment and optical gear, and to do the construction work involved in burying the fiber-optic infrastructure in the ground throughout North Carolina.

This historic project for North Carolina already is having a positive impact on student learning, patient outcomes in health care, economic outcomes in job creation and community development, and is accelerating innovation and research all across the state.

In August, MCNC will highlight some of these impacts through a great speaker line-up that will highlight the current and future use of the new broadband infrastructure.