By Becky Long
Publisher
The N.C. Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Opportunity announced more than $10 million in Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) program projects to connect 2,762 households and businesses in Clay, Cherokee nd Macon counties to high-speed internet, according to a release from NCDIT.
The projects will be funded by more than $7.5 million from the federal American Rescue Plan awarded by NCDIT and nearly $2.6 million from selected broadband providers:
In Clay County Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation was awarded the grant.
This award will provide high-speed internet access to 1,602 locations (99.26 percent of the county’s 1,614 eligible locations).
EMC spokesperson Kelly Crawford said BRMEMC will receive $3.35 million dollars.
“This is a matching gra
BRMEMC is responsible for matching 30 percent of the grant,” she said.
Crawford said the time line for the project is not available yet and that BRMEMC will know more after the final contracutual agreement is finalized with the state.
Details of where those projects will be located has also yet to be identified and will be released after the final agreement is completed, according to Crawford.
“In Clay County there are a few areas BRMEMC has not had a chance to build fiber in,” she noted.
“This is excellent news and we’re fortunate to receive CAB funding that will ensure that more of our members in Clay will have broadband access. Clay County will be the first county within our five-county service territory to be wholly served with fiber-optic internet service. This will equate to 99 percent of residents in Clay having access to fiber,” said Director of Broadband Alex King in an EMC release on its website.
The project will be completed in phases. Residents are encourage to sign up for service immediately at brmemc.com/fiber. As portions of the project are completed they said they will activate the fiber service to residents that have signed up.
Neighboring counties to receive awards included:
• Cherokee County: CND Acquisitions Corp. (Peachtree Broadband Fiber).
This award will provide high-speed internet access to 749 locations (27.43% of the county’s 2,731 eligible locations).
• Macon County: Frontier Communications of the Carolinas, LLC
This award will provide high-speed internet access to 411 locations (13.25% of the county’s 3,102 eligible locations).
“We are excited to be partnering with counties and broadband providers to bring high-speed internet access to counties in western North Carolina,” said NCDIT Secretary and State Chief Information Officer Teena Piccione. “We will be making CAB project awards on a rolling basis throughout March and April to continue making significant progress on closing the state’s digital divide.”
NCDIT announced the awards during a broadband town hall in Franklin with Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Dist. 50); Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-Dist. 119); Rep. Karl Gillespie (R-Dist. 120); Rep. Mark Pless (R-Dist. 118); Matt Calabria, director of the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina (GROW NC); municipal representatives; local internet service providers and residents.
The CAB program’s procurement process creates a partnership between counties and NCDIT to identify areas that need access, solicit proposals from prequalified internet service providers and quickly make awards. Awardees must agree to provide high-speed service that reliably meets or exceeds speeds of 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload.