Franklin County’s broadband expansion continues with new grant funding

Franklin County’s focus on improving high-speed broadband and bringing fiber access across the County has received additional support.

Through new Completing Access to Broadband grant funding, Brightspeed – formerly CenturyLink and Lumen – will begin deploying high speed fiber-to-the-home internet in more than 2,300 locations in Franklin County.  In early July, North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Equity announced the award of $5,607,797 from the CAB program with a local match of $1,962,728.95 from the County.

In April 2024, Franklin County’s Board of Commissioners approved utilizing $2,000,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funds to match the funding requirements of this grant program. Brightspeed will bring fiber to 2,374 locations – 50% of Franklin County’s 4,714 eligible locations – by October 2026.

“I fully support this overwhelmingly.  We have got to get this service out to the underserved parts of the County,” Board of Commissioners Chair Harry Foy said. “Everybody needs internet like electricity, water and sewer. You have got to have it.”

Fanklin County has benefited from broadband grant funding in the past several years. Two previous awards under the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology allowed Brightspeed to deploy fiber to more than 3,400 locations in Franklin County.

A map identifying the areas awarded under the CAB program can be found on the county’s website where information on the county’s broadband efforts can also be found.

The CAB program provides an opportunity for individual N.C. counties to partner with NCDIT to fund broadband deployment projects in unserved areas of each county. N.C. Session Law 2021-180 appropriated $400 million from ARPA for this program. NCDIT awarded CAB grant funds to connect nearly 26,000 households and businesses in 19 counties to high-speed internet.

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