The state of North Carolina has begun accepting applications for millions of dollars in broadband funding to cover some of the costs of deploying fiber to unserved and underserved rural areas of the state. A spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT) Division of Broadband and Equity confirmed that the state has about $282 million available to award.
Providers already approved to apply for funding have until January 21 to submit the first of two forms and until February 17 to file the second form.
More than 40 providers are eligible to apply. Among them are major providers such as AT&T, Brightspeed, Charter, Comcast, and Windstream, as well as small rural telecom providers, competitive providers, rural electric companies, and others. (See complete list below.)
Funding will come through the Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) Program, which is administered by the NCDIT. Applicants must commit to providing matching funds totaling at least 30% of project costs.
North Carolina Broadband Funding
The CAB program was designed to enable stakeholders in individual counties to participate in selecting providers to receive the funding and do the buildouts.
A large portion of the CAB funding came though the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Initially, individual counties were required to provide funding for the program, but that requirement has been lifted.
A selection committee will make decisions about awardees based on the ability of the applicant to perform, past performance, technical merits of the project and the cost and scope of the project.
A complete list of providers that have been approved to apply for the CAB funding is as follows:
- AccessOn Networks, Inc.
- Atlantic Telephone Membership Cooperative (FOCUS Broadband)
- BellSouth Telecommunications, LLC (AT&T North Carolina)
- BalsamWest FiberNET, LLC
- Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation (BRMEMC)
- Carolina West Wireless, Inc.
- Cebridge Acquisition, L.P. (NC CSC, LLC)
- Cherokee Cablevision, Inc.
- Citizens Telephone Company (Comporium Communications)
- CloudWyze, Inc.
- CND Acquisition Corporation (The Cable Company)
- Comcast Cable Communications, LLC (Comcast)
- Comporium, Inc. (Comporium Communications)
- Connect Holding II, LLC (Brightspeed)
- Conterra Ultra Broadband, LLC (Conterra Networks)
- ERC Broadband, LLC
- Foothills Broadband, LLC
- French Broad Electric Membership Corporation
- Frontier Communications of the Carolinas, LLC
- HarvestBeam, Inc.
- LREMC Technologies, LLC
- MCNC
- NfinityLink Communications, Inc. (InfinityLink Communications)
- Northland Cable Television, Inc. (Vyve Broadband)
- North State Communications Advanced Services, LLC (Lumos)
- Open Broadband, LLC
- Open Fiber USA, LLC (Ripple Fiber)
- Randolph Telephone Membership Corporation (Randolph Communications)
- Wilkes Telephone Membership Corporation (RiverStreet Networks (RSN))
- Roanoke Connect Holdings, LLC (Fybe)
- SkyBest Communications, Inc.
- Skyrunner, Inc.
- Spectrum Southeast, LLC
- Star Telephone Membership Corp (Star Communications)
- StarVision Inc. (Star Communications)
- Surry Telephone Membership Corporation (Surry Communications)
- Ting Fiber, LLC (Ting Internet)
- Windstream North Carolina, LLC
- Yadkin Valley Telephone Membership Corporation (Zirrus)
- ZiTEL
- Zito West Holding, LLC (Zito Media)
Approximately 93,674 locations in the state are eligible for funding. The NCDIT provided a breakdown of eligible locations by county (53 in total) at this link.
Funding available for each county can be found in the scope of work that the NCDIT issued for each county.
North Carolina did several previous rounds of funding the CAB program, as well as other broadband funding programs. Links to state funding resources, including previous awardees, as well as links to state specific Telecompetitor coverage, can be found on the Broadband Nation webpage for the state.
Updated with information from an NCDIT spokesperson