Regional broadband provider Lumos formally announced one of its recent North Carolina broadband funding awards yesterday. The project will augment an existing project which ultimately will make service available to 14,000 underserved homes in Goldsboro, NC, which is in Wayne County.
A Lumos spokesperson confirmed to Telecompetitor that the grant funding was among grants announced in July in North Carolina’s Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) program. A total of $80 million was awarded to numerous service providers in that round.
The N.C. Department of Information Technology (NCDIT) Broadband Infrastructure Office, part of the Division of Broadband and Digital Equity, awarded the GREAT grants. Telecompetitor covered the story on July 7.
The Lumos spokesperson said the company could not confirm the amount of the funding win for Wayne county or how much funding the company will contribute to the build or to builds in several other North Carolina counties for which the company won an unspecified amount of funding.
Lumos said it will be the first-ever fiber internet provider to more than 1,000 homes and small businesses in Wayne County and will reach nearly 100% of households in the Goldsboro city limits.
The GREAT grants awarded to multiple providers in the most recent round will cover some of the costs of providing provide high-speed Internet to 25,825 households and 862 businesses in 33 counties in the state.
“We are grateful to NCDIT for recognizing our work as we build a 100% Fiber Optic network that reaches many parts of North Carolina, not just the large cities,” said Brian Stading, CEO of Lumos. “The GREAT grant funds will allow us to provide Wayne County with lightning-fast internet access, giving residents the bandwidth and reliability to work from home, learn remotely, attend telehealth appointments and more.”
Service is expected to be available in Goldsboro early next month.
Lumos Networks is the joint rebranding of Lumos (Virginia) and NorthState (North Carolina) that occurred in August 2022. The company now also operates in South Carolina.
In September 2022, the company said that it would deploy a fiber broadband network to serve about 35,000 addresses in Durham and Orange counties, NC. Lumos said it would make an investment of about $50 million in the project, which will feature more than 600 miles of fiber.
Additional information about North Carolina broadband, including links to NCDIT funding resources and Telecompetitor coverage, can be found on the Broadband Nation webpage for North Carolina.
