The expansion of broadband and the number of service providers in rural areas of Pitt County dominated discussion recently when Pitt County’s legislative delegation met with the Board of Commissioners.
Outside of Greenville, few broadband users have options, Deputy County Manager/Chief Information Officer Michael Taylor told the group during the lunch meeting on April 19, held ahead of the legislative short session. There is better news on the expansion side, he said.
The Growing Rural Economies through Access to Technology, or GREAT, grant program, funded by the state with American Rescue Plan Act dollars, is helping broadband providers expand infrastructure to underserved, economically distressed areas, including areas in Pitt County.
Brightspeed and Spectrum, two providers in the county, secured grants from the program that, when combined with local ARPA dollars, will bring broadband to nearly 3,000 locations in Pitt County.
While the grants were awarded in the spring and summer of 2022, Pitt County officials said during the meeting that they were waiting for work to begin.
Because American Rescue Plan Act funding has a deadline, all projects must be completed by Dec. 31, 2026, and Taylor said there is concern that the money could be redirected to other projects if work didn’t begin soon. County officials urged the legislators to preserve the funding.
“We all know that when things linger that funding can be reappropriated for other purposes,” Taylor said in a later interview. “Part of the ask is to continue to do what you have done, which we appreciate, and don’t appropriate those funds for other purposes.”
Two days later, those concerns were partially alleviated when Brightspeed, which received a GREAT grant to bring broadband to 2,684 locations, sent Taylor an email announcing that 90 percent of the design of the Pitt County project is complete and materials acquisition was underway.
The company reported it also has completed installations to 22 commercial locations and 92 residential areas, Taylor said.
The company reported it also is funding connections to 5,499 locations with its own funds, Taylor said. Based on the information provided, Brightspeed has completed projects with addresses in Ayden, Bethel and Farmville.
“It looks like they have some scattered installations around the county,” Taylor said. “I imagine what they are doing is building on some current infrastructure they have in the area and expanding to those locations.
“This was a very encouraging report that we received,” he said.
Brightspeed received funding to cover the 2,684 locations mainly in the Ayden area and west of Bethel and in the Falkland/Fountain area.
To help the Brightspeed project, Pitt County contributed $2.6 million, which was matched by Brightspeed. The GREAT grant funded $4 million.
Pamela Sherwood, Brightspeed vice president of broadband, said the company anticipates completing its Pitt County GREAT grant projects by the beginning of 2025.
Brightspeed has 36 grants across the state that will provide $114 million to construct nearly 60,000 locations, Sherwood said. The company also is investing $72 million of its own money to bring fiber connectivity to homes, she said.
Nationwide, Brightspeed has committed to bringing fiber to up to three million homes in the 20 states it serves over the next five years. It is a $2 billion investment, Sherwood.
“As grant programs opened we looked for ways to leverage our existing private investment to make it go further,” Sherwood said.
Other grant opportunities remain, officials said.
Pitt County is among more than 30 counties that have qualified to work with the N.C. Department of Information Technology to expand service through the Completing Access to Broadband project.
Taylor said the county has committed $4 million in ARPA funds to work with a provider to serve up to 3,300 locations that have no broadband service. The awards should be announced this summer.
Sherwood said counties in the Completing Access to Broadband project issue statements of work to get prequalified providers to complete more broadband expansions. Brightspeed is one of the prequalified companies bidding on work.
Sherwood said Brightspeed also is excited about the opportunity to participate in the Broadband Equity Access and Development program, also called BEAD.
The program is designed to ensure locations currently without high-speed fiber will have that fiber installed in five years, Sherwood said. It will go not only into unserved areas, but areas with slower internet speeds like those served by DSL.
The goal is to install fiber so the service can be brought up to 100/100 Mbps, Sherwood said.
“We’ve had to be very strategic in targeting certain areas,” Taylor said. “Because of Pitt County, the way it’s grown from a large agricultural base, the population density is geographically spread. “That’s why these grants are important for a private business to be able to go in there and make a profit serving limited households.”
The county also encountered an unexpected but appreciated surprise during the process.
After the initial GREAT grants were awarded, Pitt County commissioners still saw areas that they believed were being neglected.
Pitt County Manager Janis Gallagher told the legislators that commissioners last fall allocated an additional $1 million and issued a request for proposals to see if a provider could be found for the Bethel area.
The county received some proposals and was in discussions when Brightspeed contacted the county and announced it had an active project in the area so the county didn’t have to make the award.
Gallagher said county officials were hesitant, saying the provider involved in the discussions would have service in the area by late 2024. Brightspeed told the county it also would have service available before then.
When asked if Pitt County’s effort to find a provider for the Bethel area was the motivation for Brightspeed to announce its strategic build plan for the area, Sherwood repeated that the company’s plan is to invest $2 billion in expansion and upgrades over the next five years.
Taylor said the county is holding the $1 million. Once the Completing Access to Broadband projects are announced in the summer, if there are unserved locations the commissioners may reissue a request for proposals and use the $1 million as an incentive to continue bringing service to Pitt County.
Most Popular
Comments / 0