Brightspeed was the big winner in a tranche of grants from the North Carolina Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) program. The company was approved to provide broadband to 3,669 locations in 14 counties.
In all, CAB announced $58 million in grants for broadband connectivity to 10,076 homes and businesses in 26 North Carolina counties.
Brightspeed was the winning bidder for Bladen, Chowan, Columbus, Granville, Guilford, Halifax, Hoke, Martin, Northampton, Person, Rockingham, Stokes, Surry, and Yadkin counties.
Other winners for entire counties:
- ERC Broadband, LLC: 521 locations in Henderson County
- Lumbee River Electric Membership Corporation (LREMC Technologies, LLC): 96 locations in Scotland County
- Spectrum Southeast, LLC: 393 locations in Iredell, Johnston, and Richmond counties
- Windstream North Carolina, LLC: 832 locations in Harnett and Moore counties
- Zirrus (Yadkin Valley Telephone Membership Corporation): 261 locations in Rowan County
The counties with more than one winning provider:
- Brightspeed (Connect Holding II, LLC), Randolph Communications (Randolph Telephone Membership Corporation), and Spectrum Southeast, LLC: 1,403 locations in Randolph County
- Lumbee River Electric Membership Corporation (LREMC Technologies, LLC) and Spectrum Southeast, LLC: 550 locations in Robeson County
- Spectrum Southeast, LLC and Windstream North Carolina, LLC: 2,351 locations in Cabarrus, Chatham counties
Counties in the state partner with the North Carolina Department of Information Technology through the CAB grants program. The awards announced this week bring investments to the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grants and previous CAB projects to about $688 million.
In a separate press release, Brightspeed said that its CAB and GREAT commitments have reached $244 million and will bring connectivity to 108,000 households and businesses in 55 counties in the state. It says that it will eventually connect almost 909,000 locations in the state.
Some of those locations were announced during an April announcement of North Carolina broadband grants when the service provider was awarded $29 million to help it bring broadband to 11 counties.
Additional information about broadband in North Carolina, including links to state funding resources and grants, awards made, state-specific Telecompetitor coverage, and more can be found on the Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
