GRANVILLE COUNTY ADMINISTRATION: The NC Department of Information Technology (NCDIT) and Roanoke Connect Holdings (Fybe) have partnered to provide fiber-optic broadband infrastructure to more than 2,164 homes and businesses across Granville County as part of the Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) program. Fybe will invest $973,276 and the State of North Carolina will provide $2,270,978 in CAB grant funding. Fybe will have two years to complete the required installation once final contracts are approved and executed.

This is the third CAB project that will improve high-speed internet access in Granville County following an earlier County partnership in mid-2024 with Fybe to service 1,697 addresses and a County partnership with Spectrum in early 2024 to service 1,530 locations. These three successful CAB program awards are in addition to a 2023 County partnership with Brightspeed on a Growing Rural Communities with Access to Technology (GREAT) program grant to service 1,914 locations. Spectrum also received federal funding in 2020 to install broadband infrastructure at 1,120 addresses as part of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). Once all five broadband internet projects are completed, more than 8,425 homes and businesses in rural Granville County will have gained access to high-speed internet.

“On behalf of the Board of Commissioners, I would like to thank the State of North Carolina and Fybe for continuing their commitment to investing in high-speed internet access for Granville County residents,” said Granville County Board of Commissioners Chair Jimmy Gooch. “County staff has worked diligently with NCDIT and several ISPs to provide what we know is a necessity for our residents and businesses. This latest grant award shows that our hard work is being rewarded, and we are committed to exploring every possibility to ensure that every corner of our county has access to reliable high-speed internet.”

Since 2019, Granville County has proactively sought methods to bridge the high-speed internet access gap for its residents. Various state laws and regulations prohibit county and city governments from providing internet service or installing infrastructure themselves, but if an ISP chooses to participate in an eligible project (like the NC CAB or GREAT programs) a local government may then incentivize the expansion of service access with the use of public funds. The CAB Grant Program utilizes funding that the State of North Carolina received from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that allows ISPs to competitively bid and partner with counties to provide internet access to rural North Carolina locations.

NCDIT utilizes Federal Communications Commission (FCC) data for these projects to determine eligible locations that are “unserved” based on the FCC definition of high-speed internet. Residents are encouraged to utilize the FCC challenge process if they believe that their address is unserved and has not been included in any of these current or future broadband expansion projects.

For more information on the FCC challenge process, visit https://help.bdc.fcc.gov/hc/en us/articles/10476040597787-How-to-Submit-an-Availability-Challenge. Residents can also assist NCDIT efforts to gather accurate data on broadband internet access by completing the NC Broadband Survey at www.ncbroadband.gov/surveys/broadband.

To see if your address has been included in one of the awarded projects, visit the NC Broadband funding map at www.nconemap.gov/pages/broadband. Additional information about Granville County’s initiatives to expand broadband access can be found at www.granvillecounty.org/broadband including information about the RDOF, GREAT, and CAB projects, along with project maps.