RALEIGH – Fourteen counties in North Carolina are on their way to receiving more broadband access after the state of North Carolina awarded $22 million grants through the Completing Access to Broadband program.

The grants involve private sector partners who are contributing funding to augment the state awards.

The CAB program is administered by the N.C. Department of Information Technology. It is a complement to the state’s Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grant program.

Awards were made by the NCDIT Broadband Infrastructure Office, which is part of the Division of Broadband and Digital Equity.

  • Alexander County: Spectrum Southeast LLC (Charter Communications)
  • Franklin County: Spectrum Southeast LLC (Charter Communications)
  • Granville County: Spectrum Southeast LLC (Charter Communications)
  • Haywood County: Spectrum Southeast LLC (Charter Communications)
  • Hertford County: Roanoke Connect Holdings (FYBE)
  • Madison County: Skyrunner Inc.
  • Mitchell County: French Broad Electric Membership Corp. (French Broad Fiber)
  • Onslow County: Spectrum Southeast LLC (Charter Communications)
  • Robeson County: Spectrum Southeast LLC (Charter Communications)
  • Rutherford County: Bellsouth Telecommunications LLC (AT&T)
  • Sampson County: Spectrum Southeast LLC (Charter Communications)
  • Stokes County: Surry Telephone Membership Corp.
  • Vance County: Zitel LLC
  • Wilkes County: Wilkes Communications Inc.

For more about the funds, see this report from Telecompetitor

Program requirements

From the NCDIT Broadband Infrastructure Office:

“These new CAB program awards add to the nearly $348 million in GREAT grants awarded in 2022 and 2023 that are set to connect 144,046 North Carolina households and businesses to high-speed internet. The GREAT grant and CAB programs provide matching grants to internet service providers that may partner with individual North Carolina counties to compete for funding to expand high-speed internet service to unserved and underserved areas of the state.

“Like GREAT grant awardees, all CAB program grantees must participate in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provides eligible low-income households a $30 per month discount on high-speed internet service, or provide access to a comparable low-cost program.

“CAB program applicants must also agree to provide high-speed service, defined as a minimum of 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) download and 20 Mbps upload, scalable to 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload on or before Dec. 31, 2026.”