NCDIT GREAT Program

In 2018, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) Program to provide grants to private providers of broadband services to facilitate the deployment of broadband service to unserved areas of North Carolina. This provided $10 million for broadband grants in economically distressed (Tier One) counties. In 2019, the General Assembly amended the GREAT Act, increasing the funding to $15 million per year and designating funding for 10 years. The amendment also expanded eligible counties to include Tier Two counties beginning in 2021.

The GREAT Program which is implemented by the N.C. Department of Information Technology's Broadband Infrastructure Office, funds the deployment of broadband within eligible unserved areas with transmission speeds of at least 10 Mbps download, and at least one Mbps upload. Deployment of speeds of 25:3 Mbps or greater is encouraged.

The grants are available to private broadband service providers and are designed to connect these areas with broadband as quickly as possible. During the first round of funding, which was awarded in 2019, two of our members received funding to help bring high speed internet to 12,854 households in southeastern North Carolina.

This continues to be an important program for rural and unserved areas of North Carolina. Higher speeds should be encouraged by raising the threshold of unserved from 10:1 Mbps to 25:3 Mbps, and more funding should be available for unserved areas in both Tier 2 and Tier 3 counties.

To date, CarolinaLink members have won four NC Great grants totaling $4.4 million dollars to serve 3,296 households in rural North Carolina. CarolinaLink Members are contributing an additional $1.5 million in matching funds to the these projects, which will allow the cooperatives to serve more than 5,000 rural North Carolinians.

Star Telephone Membership Corporation- 2020 NC GREAT Grant Special Supplementary Round

1,909Funded Service Area Households

$3,270,897 Award Amount

STAR Communications was awarded $3,270,897 dollars in two grants through the 2020 Special Supplementary Round of the Growing Rural Economies through Access to Technology (GREAT) Grant Program to build fiber optic broadband networks in Bladen and Sampson Counties. These grants will provide affordable broadband internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit to more than 1,900 addresses in these rural communities. STAR is contributing an additional $1,401,813 in matching funds for these projects.

FOCUS Broadband - 2020 NC GREAT Grant Special Supplementary Round

4,955Funded Service Area Households

59Funded Service Area Businesses

$7,855,102 Award Amount

FOCUS Broadband was awarded $7,855,102 dollars in four grants through the 2020 Special Supplementary Round of the Growing Rural Economies through Access to Technology (GREAT) Grant Program to build fiber optic broadband networks in Brunswick County, Columbus County, Duplin County and Robeson County. These grants will provide affordable broadband internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit to more than 5,000 addresses in these rural communities. FOCUS Broadband is contributing an additional $3,366,472 in matching funds for these projects.

FOCUS Broadband - 2020 NC GREAT Grant Project

2615Funded Service Area Households

36Funded Service Area Businesses

$3,769,213 Award Amount

In 2020, FOCUS Broadband was awarded $2,538,297 dollars in two grants from the NC GREAT Grant program to build a fiber optic broadband network in the Columbus County communities of Fair Bluff and Boardman and the Robeson County communities of Orrum and Proctorville. These grants will provide affordable broadband internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit to 2,183 households in these communities. FOCUS Broadband is contributing an additional $888,403 in matching funds for these projects. As part of the 2020 NC GREAT Grant program and additional funding through the COVID-19 Recovery Act, FOCUS Broadband was also awarded $1,230,916 to build their fiber optic network to 432 households in rural Duplin County. FOCUS Broadband will match this grant dollar for dollar.

FOCUS Broadband - 2019 NC GREAT Grant Project

735Funded Service Area Households

20Funded Service Area Businesses

$1,099,996 Award Amount

This Rural Development investment provided FOCUS Broadband the opportunity to use $1,099,996 in NC GREAT Grant Program funding to build a gigabit-capable passive optical network (GPON) fiber-to-the-home network to serve over 1,400 homes in rural Columbus County. FOCUS Broadband contributed $543,844 in matching funds for the project which will include 735 funded households and 20 businesses. In addition, FOCUS Broadband will self-fund additional construction to provide access to another 700 households for areas adjacent to the grant area. FOCUS Broadband completed the project in July of 2020.

Star Telephone Membership Corporation-2019 NC GREAT Grant Project

378Funded Service Area Households

26Funded Service Area Businesses

$856,932 Award Amount

With this investment, Star Telephone Membership Corporation utilized $856,932 in NC GREAT Grant Program grant funding to build a gigabit-capable passive optical network (GPON) past 378 homes and 10 businesses in rural Bladen County. Star Telephone contributed $856,932 in matching funds for the project. Star Telephone completed the project in August of 2020.