Granville County Partners with Brightspeed to Provide High Speed Fiber Internet to 1,914 Homes and Businesses 

GRANVILLE COUNTY ADMINISTRATION: The Granville County Board of Commissioners have finalized a  partnership with Brightspeed and the NC Department of Information Technology (NC DIT) to provide high speed  fiber internet access to 1,914 homes and businesses in rural Granville County through the Growing Rural  Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) Grant Program. Brightspeed will have two years to install internet  infrastructure capable of providing fiber internet service to the approved locations. The NC GREAT Grant award  totaled $4 million, and Granville County will utilize federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding to  contribute 20% ($1,338,876) of the total project cost of $6,677,752. 

Granville County has proactively sought methods to bridge the high-speed internet access gap in Granville  County that began in earnest with a formal Request for Qualifications in 2019. Various state laws and  regulations prohibit county and city governments from providing internet services or installing infrastructure themselves, but they may partner with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to expand access and improve service.  The NC GREAT Grant Program utilizes funding that the State of North Carolina received from the ARPA to allow  the state government and local governments to partner with willing ISPs to expand internet access to rural  North Carolina locations that do not meet the minimum Federal Communications Commission (FCC) parameters  of having access to “high-speed” internet.  

The areas served by this project are concentrated on the outskirts of Oxford, western Granville County around  the Berea and Culbreth communities, and northern Granville County communities of Cornwall, Oak Hill, Gela,  and Grassy Creek. Some of the addresses included can be found on portions of Antioch Road, Fairport Road, NC  Highway 96, US Highway 15, US Highway 158, Knotts Grove Road, Old NC 75, James Royster Road, Enon Road,  Hebron Road, Cornwall Road, Gela Road, Mountain Creek Road, Oak Hill Road, Grassy Creek Road, and Grassy  Creek-Virgilina Road among many others. To view a full map of addresses served, visit  www.granvillecounty.org/broadband or the NC One Map: https://www.nconemap.gov/pages/broadband.  

“This is just a start and does not solve the broadband gap for many areas of our county, but we are very excited  to partner with Brightspeed to provide thousands of citizens with access to true high-speed fiber internet at  their homes and businesses that have never received these services before,” said Board of Commissioners Chair  Russ May. “Much like water or electric service, high speed internet access is an essential utility for daily life, and  we are thankful that the State of North Carolina chose to dedicate a significant portion of their ARPA funding to  this project. The Board of Commissioners and county staff are still working as quickly as possible to find other  partners who are willing and able to expand and improve internet access in the remainder of Granville County,  much of which was unfortunately not eligible for this specific project.”