Posted October 2, 2024
The Granville County Board of Commissioners recently approved a partnership that will provide fiber-optic broadband infrastructure to more than 1,697 addresses across the county. The NC Department of Information Technology (NCDIT) and Roanoke Connect Holdings (Fybe) have agreed to partner with Granville County as part of the Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) program. The State of NC and Fybe will invest at least $3.3 million in the project and Granville County has committed a local match of $1.8 million. As of this writing, there is a possibility that the North Carolina General Assembly will enact legislation to forgive the local match commitment at which point the entire project cost will be shared by Fybe and the State of NC. To be eligible for any public funding, Fybe will have two years to complete the required installation.
Granville County’s participation in the CAB program with Fybe is the latest initiative to ensure that all Granville citizens have access to high-speed internet infrastructure. The 1,697 new locations that will be serviced by Fybe are in addition to the previous CAB grant project with Spectrum for 1,530 locations that was announced earlier in 2024. Spectrum is also installing broadband infrastructure to an additional 1,120 addresses as part of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) project. Granville County also partnered with Brightspeed for a Growing Rural Communities with Access to Technology (GREAT) program grant to service 1,914 locations. Once all active broadband internet projects are completed, more than 6,261 homes and businesses in rural Granville County will have gained access to high-speed internet.
“We are pleased that this partnership with Fybe and the State of North Carolina will provide critical broadband infrastructure to even more of our residents,” said Granville County Board of Commissioners Chair Timothy Karan. “Receiving access to true high-speed internet can be life changing, and there are now thousands of residents across our county who are gaining access for the first time as part of these programs. The Board of Commissioners and county staff are dedicated to continuing this work until all residents of our county have access to this vital utility.”
Since 2019, Granville County has proactively sought methods to bridge the high-speed internet access gap for its residents. Various state laws and regulations prohibit county and city governments from providing internet service or installing infrastructure themselves, but if an ISP chooses to participate in an eligible project (like the NC CAB or GREAT programs) a local government may then incentivize the expansion of service access with the use of public funds. The NC CAB Grant Program utilizes funding that the State of North Carolina received from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that allows ISPs to competitively bid and partner with counties to provide internet access to rural North Carolina locations that are “unserved” according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) definition of “high-speed” internet.
Additional information about RDOF, GREAT, and CAB projects, along with a full map of the awarded addresses, can be found on the county website or by visiting the NC Broadband funding map where you can enter an address to see if it has been included in one of the awarded projects.