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North Carolina Commits $48M to Expand High-Speed Internet in 22 Rural Counties

North Carolina has allocated $48 million to a major infrastructure initiative aimed at accelerating broadband expansion across 22 counties. This state-led investment addresses a critical challenge: the digital divide that continues to leave rural communities without reliable, high-speed internet. By funding projects through the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) Grant program, the state is taking strategic steps to increase broadband availability where it’s been historically limited or non-existent.

This move operates against the national backdrop of uneven internet access, where millions across the U.S.—particularly in rural and economically distressed regions—lack the basic connectivity needed to fully participate in a 21st-century economy. North Carolina is streamlining resources to change that reality.

For residents, this expansion will support remote work and virtual education. Small businesses stand to benefit from improved e-commerce capabilities, while healthcare providers, emergency response teams, and local governments will gain faster, more reliable digital infrastructure. The $48M initiative is not just building networks—it’s shaping a more connected, competitive, and resilient North Carolina.

Why Broadband Infrastructure Matters in 2024

Fast, reliable internet access now functions as a cornerstone of American life. From ordering groceries and applying for jobs to attending school and accessing healthcare, broadband touches nearly every facet of daily experience. In 2024, its role extends beyond convenience—it's foundational to civic participation, economic competitiveness, and social mobility.

Broadband no longer sits on the sidelines of infrastructure discussions. It sits beside roads, bridges, and electricity grids. The U.S. Department of the Treasury—through the Capital Projects Fund—categorizes broadband as essential, investing $10 billion nationwide to prioritize digital infrastructure. This strategic shift recognizes that communities without high-speed internet simply cannot compete in the digital economy.

Without adequate broadband, economic opportunity narrows. Job seekers miss online postings. Small businesses lose access to digital marketplaces. Students fall behind without stable connections for remote learning. Even basic health services become harder to reach when telehealth isn’t an option. The result: communities face stagnation while connected regions surge ahead.

Consider where infrastructure gaps hurt most. Often, it’s rural counties, where cable lines drop off miles outside town or where mountainous terrain complicates last-mile delivery. Limited bandwidth curtails everything—from startups trying to upload product videos to elderly residents attempting to refill prescriptions online.

The push for broadband expansion in 2024 reflects a broader recognition: access to high-speed internet delivers measurable social and economic returns. It powers innovation, boosts income levels, strengthens public health systems, and drives educational attainment. Lagging infrastructure means lost potential—and the gap grows wider with every unmet need.

The necessity is no longer up for debate. In 2024, broadband infrastructure stands as a public utility—not a luxury—one that enables full participation in American economic, educational, and civic life.

The Challenges of the Digital Divide in North Carolina

Understanding the Digital Divide

The digital divide separates individuals and communities with reliable, high-speed internet access from those without. In North Carolina, this gap affects students unable to turn in assignments online, farmers lacking real-time data tools, and healthcare providers struggling to offer virtual care. Limited connectivity suppresses opportunities, restricts innovation, and reinforces generational poverty.

The divide rarely results from personal choice. Instead, it stems from economic constraints, outdated infrastructure, and geographic isolation. Low-income residents face high service costs, limited provider options, and aging equipment. In many rural communities, broadband infrastructure simply doesn’t exist—or falls far below FCC speed standards of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload.

Where the Gaps Persist: A Geographic Breakdown

The 22 counties targeted for investment span regions with some of the lowest connectivity rates in the state. Central and eastern North Carolina—including areas in Halifax, Edgecombe, Robeson, and Anson counties—experience persistent service gaps. Western counties, such as Swain and Graham, grapple with mountainous terrain and sparse population density, complicating fiber rollout and wireless deployment.

These connectivity deserts are not evenly scattered. They cluster, aligned with economic distress and historical underinvestment. Satellite data from the NC Department of Information Technology confirm that the absence of service correlates strongly with areas of higher poverty rates, lower educational attainment, and poor health outcomes.

Rural and Low-Income Households: The Hardest Hit

Households with incomes below $35,000 are five times more likely to lack home broadband compared to households earning above $75,000, per Pew Research Center data. In North Carolina, that economic disparity plays out visibly across counties with large rural populations. Families in these areas often rely solely on mobile data, which limits access to telehealth, job applications, and remote learning platforms.

Among students, digital inequity has measurable academic consequences. The homework gap—where students cannot complete digital assignments due to limited access—disproportionately affects children in counties like Vance, Hertford, and Bertie. Public libraries and fast-food parking lots become study halls, not by choice but necessity.

Across healthcare, small clinics in rural counties often cannot offer telemedicine services. Providers struggle to upload imaging files or run cloud-based patient software due to slow connections. Telework adoption remains low, and entrepreneurial ventures face systemic barriers to scaling online operations.

The $48 million investment targets these exact pain points. But without addressing the root barriers—distance, affordability, and outdated infrastructure—the divide will persist across digital, economic, and social lines.

Rural Internet Access: A Long-Overdue Investment

Reliable high-speed internet has eluded large sections of rural North Carolina for decades. In counties where tobacco barns once dotted the landscape and livestock auctions still fill community calendars, entire communities remain offline or rely on sluggish, unreliable connections. This digital void stems from two inescapable realities: low population density and decades of infrastructure underinvestment.

Unlike urban centers teeming with potential subscribers, rural regions offer little financial incentive to major internet service providers. Fewer homes per mile translate directly into lower returns on infrastructure investments. Laying fiber across miles of farmland or up into the mountainous terrain of western counties costs exponentially more per customer than building out a network in a densely packed city block.

Add to that a patchwork of aging infrastructure—telecom lines laid in the 1970s, rusting satellite systems, and wireless towers optimized for analog signals—and the digital shelf life in rural communities begins to show. Generations of residents have waited for digital parity while watching broadband expansion leapfrog their zip codes entirely.

The $48 million investment announced by North Carolina targets these exact fault lines in connectivity. Funds will channel directly into broadband deployment across 22 counties—most of them historically underserved. These include pockets of the Appalachian foothills, swaths of the Coastal Plain, and clusters of agricultural hubs where fast internet is as rare as cell towers. In many of these regions, fewer than 60% of households have access to reliable broadband, according to data from the N.C. Department of Information Technology.

By directing substantial funding to these overlooked areas, the state isn't just filling coverage gaps—it’s recalibrating the blueprint of connectivity in North Carolina. Network expansion will reach places long dismissed as commercially unviable, and with that shift, small towns and remote farms will finally move closer to digital inclusion.

Targeting Connectivity: Where North Carolina’s $48M Internet Investment is Headed

North Carolina has committed $48 million through the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) Grants program to expand high-speed internet access across 22 counties. The investment supports 29 separate infrastructure projects, each aimed at closing the connectivity gap in underserved and unserved communities.

Counties Receiving New Broadband Projects

The funding targets a diverse range of counties, with a focus on those that have struggled with minimal or no broadband coverage. These counties include:

Internet Providers Partnering in the Rollout

Multiple private-sector providers are executing these projects through public-private partnerships. These include:

Project Timeline and Implementation

Rollout schedules vary by project but must align with federal and state guidelines requiring completion no later than December 2026. Service providers will initiate construction in late 2024, with the first wave of households gaining access as early as mid-2025. Phased deployment ensures priority is given to areas with no existing 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload service.

Technology Being Deployed

The majority of projects emphasize future-ready infrastructure. Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) leads the deployments, selected for its scalability and low latency. A smaller segment of rural locations—where fiber trenching is cost-prohibitive—will see fixed wireless solutions utilizing licensed spectrum and line-of-sight towers.

Hybrid deployments combining fiber backbone with high-throughput wireless links will also serve mountainous terrain and remote forested zones, particularly in western and northeastern counties.

What Does $48 Million Buy in Broadband Infrastructure?

This direct allocation of funds transforms connectivity from aspiration to infrastructure, setting the stage for the next phase of economic, educational, and healthcare access across some of North Carolina’s most isolated communities.

Public-Private Partnerships: Leveraging Collaboration

Coordinated Efforts Between Government and Industry

The $48 million broadband expansion initiative in North Carolina relies on strategic partnerships between public agencies and private-sector internet service providers (ISPs). By aligning state-level resources with the infrastructure capabilities of commercial entities, the project accelerates deployment timelines and maximizes coverage across 22 counties. Collaboration reduces duplication of effort and ensures that both technological expertise and local insight shape the development process.

Shared Commitments, Shared Impact

State officials work closely with regional broadband offices, municipal governments, and community development organizations. These relationships help identify areas with persistent gaps in internet access and coordinate site-specific implementation strategies. Private ISPs, in turn, bring network infrastructure, skilled labor, and logistical resources to the table, streamlining the path from planning to actual fiber rollout.

Companies Powering the Expansion

Why Collaboration Delivers Measurable Gains

Single-entity infrastructure efforts often stumble over capacity limits or geographic blind spots. In contrast, this joint model pools financial, technical, and operational strengths. By integrating public investment with private-sector agility, North Carolina avoids bureaucratic delays and accelerates coverage milestones. Each party brings something essential to the process—capital injection from the public sector, technological acumen from ISPs, and frontline knowledge from local organizations.

Where might these collaborations lead next? With successful rollouts underway, the groundwork is already in place to scale broadband access faster and smarter across more counties in the future.

Strategic Government Funding Fuels Broadband Expansion

Harnessing State and Federal Resources

The $48 million broadband initiative targeting 22 counties in North Carolina draws its funding from a blend of state and federal sources. A significant portion of the investment stems from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which allocated over $1.2 billion to North Carolina for various pandemic recovery efforts, including broadband infrastructure. These ARPA funds are funneled into the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) Grant program, administered by the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT).

In addition to ARPA, the North Carolina General Assembly approved further allocations through the State Capital and Infrastructure Fund (SCIF). These state-level commitments reflect a recognition that high-speed internet access is no longer optional—it is a basic infrastructure need, equal in importance to roads and electricity.

Federal Emphasis on Broadband as National Infrastructure

The federal government has elevated broadband access to a national priority through legislation such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021. Under this statute, more than $65 billion has been assigned nationwide to boost internet access, with special consideration for underserved rural areas. North Carolina’s strategy aligns with this federal push, ensuring compliance, coordination, and additional funding opportunities through programs like the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program.

This alignment strengthens the state’s ability to scale deployment rapidly while maintaining eligibility for matching federal dollars and technical assistance. State and federal agencies coordinate on timelines, grant disbursements, and broadband mapping to avoid redundancy and accelerate implementation.

Maintaining Financial Integrity: Safeguards Against Misuse

Oversight mechanisms have been embedded into the funding process to ensure legal and equitable use of funds. The NCDIT mandates that grant recipients submit detailed budget breakdowns, project milestones, and quarterly reports. That information is subject to audit by the Office of State Budget and Management and reviewed by third-party consultants specializing in public infrastructure spending.

These compliance checks create a funding environment rooted in accountability. Through this structure, North Carolina ensures that each dollar contributes directly to connecting homes, businesses, farms, and community institutions to modern digital infrastructure.

Economic Development Impacts: From Farms to Startups

Digital Highways Fueling Local Economies

In the 22 counties where North Carolina’s $48 million broadband expansion is underway, better internet access is reshaping local economies from the ground up. For small businesses in rural towns, having previously been constrained by unreliable connectivity, this marks a shift from survival to scale. Retailers that depended solely on foot traffic can now build e-commerce platforms and reach wider audiences through digital marketing. Farmers are integrating precision agriculture tools—data analytics, GPS-guided equipment, and IoT sensors—optimizing yields on land that was previously cut off from cloud-based technology.

A Pipeline for Jobs and Rural Resilience

Economic modeling by the NC Department of Commerce projects that for every $1 million invested in broadband infrastructure, roughly 15 to 20 jobs are generated or supported—including roles in construction, tech support, training, and e-commerce. In counties like Greene and Bertie, where unemployment rates have historically hovered above the state average, even a modest boost in job availability introduces measurable improvements in household income and spending power.

Digital Entrepreneurship and the Rise of Remote Work

With stable high-speed connections, rural residents can now tap into global markets—from launching Etsy storefronts to offering freelance services on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr. In Ashe County, a former retail manager turned web designer now contracts full-time with clients in Seattle and Denver—something impossible before fiber access reached her home. And she’s not alone.

According to the North Carolina Technology Association, the share of tech workers living outside major cities jumped 12% between 2020 and 2023, much of it attributed to remote-friendly migration trends. The broadband expansion extends this migration corridor, encouraging talent retention in communities previously hollowed out by urban flight.

Local Voices, Real Impact

“We’ve lost too many young people to Raleigh and Charlotte because they couldn’t grow their careers here,” says Jerome Miller, Executive Director of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce. “This is changing fast. Two coworking hubs have already opened, and we've barely scratched the surface.”

In Yancey County, a drone services startup launched by a former agriculture student now services logging companies across western North Carolina. Founder Olivia Spencer attributes her launch to the new fiber line installed in 2023: “I couldn’t upload flight data or share footage with clients before. The second I had bandwidth, I opened for business.”

Economic opportunity no longer ends where fiber lines used to. With this investment, it's taking root—in cafés, on tractors, and in basement startups—with the bandwidth to grow.

Transforming Daily Life: How Expanded Broadband Access Will Touch Households Across North Carolina

A Gateway to Affordability and Daily Convenience

For thousands of households across 22 counties in North Carolina, the $48 million broadband expansion injects more than just speed into rural internet services—it introduces tangible improvements to everyday living. Families will gain access to competitively priced service packages designed to reduce monthly digital expenses, making high-speed internet viable for lower-income homes. According to the North Carolina Department of Information Technology, project parameters require grantees to offer low-cost options starting below $30 per month.

Beyond just cost, the initiative integrates digital literacy training and customer support resources. Local libraries, community colleges, and nonprofit organizations will host workshops and one-on-one guidance sessions to empower residents with practical digital navigation skills—from setting up home networks to managing online banking or accessing virtual healthcare services.

Case Study: The King Family in McDowell County

McDowell County is among the 22 selected for broadband enhancement. Until now, the King family, a household of five in Nebo, relied on spotty satellite connections that dropped during heavy rainstorms and lagged during the kids' online classes. Mrs. King, a remote medical transcriptionist, often drove to a nearby town and parked outside a coffee shop just to upload client files.

Once the new fiber lines reached their neighborhood in March 2024, weekly routines changed overnight. Mr. King enrolled in a part-time online certificate in HVAC systems through a state community college. Their high school senior now streams lectures without buffering, while their youngest uses interactive learning apps for speech therapy—resources they couldn’t access consistently before.

Phone calls that once cut out mid-sentence now carry clearly. Grocery ordering, healthcare appointments, utility payments—all take place from home with zero disruption. As Mrs. King put it during a local interview with Carolina Connected, “We’re not just online—we’re in the world now.”

Digital Literacy: A Cornerstone of Effective Access

Deployment brings infrastructure, but usability defines success. The broadband expansion incorporates public training modules in both English and Spanish to cater to multilingual households. Through NC Digital Inclusion Collaborative initiatives, volunteers and IT professionals conduct in-home visits for elderly residents unfamiliar with digital interfaces.

Every device connection step, security setting, and basic troubleshooting guidance finds its place in printed guides and mobile-accessible instruction videos. The strategy is clear: fast internet must come hand-in-hand with the skills to use it.

Connecting Classrooms: Transforming Education Through High-Speed Internet

Closing the Homework Gap with Sustained Broadband Access

Fast and reliable internet is no longer a luxury—it's a foundational component of modern education. In 2021, Pew Research Center found that 15% of U.S. households with school-age children lacked a high-speed internet connection. In North Carolina’s rural counties, that number has been historically higher. By investing $48 million to expand high-speed internet across 22 counties, the state is directly targeting this disparity.

Students in unserved or underserved areas often resort to completing assignments in library parking lots or access free Wi-Fi from fast-food restaurants. With this new broadband expansion, thousands of students will gain consistent at-home connectivity, eliminating logistical obstacles and freeing them to focus entirely on learning rather than access.

Empowering Schools, Colleges, and Virtual Learning Environments

The broadband expansion supports more than just households. Public school systems, community colleges, and universities across these 22 counties are set to benefit from new or upgraded infrastructure capable of supporting high-bandwidth educational tools.

These institutions can now enhance STEM curricula, launch remote tutoring services, and conduct real-time video instruction—capabilities previously limited by internet speed bottlenecks.

Voices from the Ground: Educators Reflect on the Impact

In Sampson County, Superintendent Dr. Marvin Gaster stated that expanded broadband “extends the reach of our educators well beyond the classroom and into every corner of our district.” According to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, the district had reported a connectivity gap affecting nearly 18% of its students as recently as 2022.

Heather Delgado, a high school teacher in rural Anson County, noted how limited home access previously derailed lesson plans: “Group projects couldn't happen after school hours. Even submitting essays became a gamble for students with unstable service. This shift changes the tone of our classroom conversations—from ‘How can I complete this?’ to ‘How deep can we go?’”

With broadband infrastructure reaching deeper into communities, faculty no longer need to design lessons around digital limitations. They can instead challenge students with complex, layered tasks that mirror real-world environments—interconnected, collaborative, and tech-driven.

Broadband Access is Powering Telehealth Expansion Across North Carolina

As North Carolina directs $48 million into broadband infrastructure upgrades across 22 counties, one sector poised for immediate transformation is healthcare—specifically, telehealth. With high-speed internet as a prerequisite for reliable virtual care, rural clinics and hospitals can now connect patients to critical resources that were previously out of reach.

Virtual Care Depends on Reliable Connectivity

Video-based consultations, remote patient monitoring, and ongoing digital follow-ups no longer remain theoretical benefits when broadband is in place—they become daily practice. Telehealth platforms require upload speeds of at least 1 Mbps per stream for low-definition video and up to 6 Mbps for high-definition. In counties where connections were previously averaging under 1 Mbps, patients could not even load a video call without disruption.

Report after report confirms what healthcare administrators already know: access to broadband directly correlates with better health outcomes. According to a 2022 study published in Health Affairs, counties in the lowest quintile of broadband availability saw preventable hospitalization rates that were 25% higher than those in the highest quintile. In rural North Carolina, where chronic disease and limited provider access persist, broadband becomes a health enabler—not just a convenience.

Healthcare Providers Are Already Responding

Rural health systems are scaling digital services in multiple directions. For example:

Partnerships between broadband providers and health systems are boosting the speed at which services expand. State-backed initiatives, like the NC Telehealth Network Association (NCTNA), are helping rural facilities upgrade both connectivity and digital infrastructure—ensuring that when homes receive internet service, local providers are ready to integrate into the system.

The new broadband investments remove barriers that, until now, left tens of thousands without consistent care. As the network grows, so will the reach of remote diagnostics, specialist access, and continuous patient engagement across North Carolina.

Charting the Future: Toward a Digitally Inclusive North Carolina

North Carolina’s $48 million broadband investment marks a definitive step in dismantling decades-old geographic and economic barriers to connectivity. By expanding high-speed internet access across 22 counties, the state is not just updating infrastructure—it’s expanding opportunity. This project enables long-term systemic change, tapping into improved education outcomes, smarter healthcare delivery, and stronger local businesses, particularly where the digital divide previously hindered growth.

The transformation won't go unnoticed. Residents in underserved regions will begin to experience better connection speeds and reduced latency. Teachers will see students participate more fully in virtual classrooms. Entrepreneurs in remote areas will gain the tools they need to scale. And rural clinicians will use telehealth to reach patients who’ve waited too long for accessible care. Broadband infrastructure in North Carolina is no longer a promise—it’s a pipeline to equity.

How Can Residents and Businesses Stay Engaged?

Accountability Through Transparency

Expansion alone won’t bridge the divide; sustained oversight will. State agencies have committed to regular performance reviews, provider audits, and community reporting. These measures make room for public input, course correction, and measurable results. Interactive dashboards will track coverage percentage, installation pace, and resident satisfaction across regions. With this approach, high-speed internet won’t just spread—it will stick, delivering the ROI residents expect.

Every milestone reached—from laying fiber in forgotten valleys to connecting a first-time user to e-learning—brings North Carolina closer to technological equity. The future isn’t just wired—it’s woven into everyday lives. And every resident plays a part in shaping what comes next.