Grant will help with Martin County connectivity

Martin County is one grant closer to complete broadband connectivity.

On Monday, The North Carolina Department of Information Technology, (NCDIT) Division of Broadband and Digital Equity today announced an additional $112 million in Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) program projects to connect 25,903 households and businesses in 19 counties to high-speed internet.

Martin County was one of those counties to receive the funding.

The CAB program’s procurement process creates a partnership between counties and NCDIT to identify areas that need access, solicit proposals from prequalified internet 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.

“We are excited so many counties and internet service providers have partnered with us on the CAB program,” said NCDIT Deputy Secretary for Broadband and Digital Equity Nate Denny. “These awarded projects will help us make significant progress on closing the state’s digital divide.”

The awards will be added in late July to NCDIT’s new dashboard that show details and progress on programs funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act as part of Governor Cooper’s plan to close the digital divide.

The awards add to the nearly $404 million in Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grants and previous CAB funding awarded in 2022-2024 that are set to connect nearly 161,000 North Carolina households and businesses to high-speed internet.

Interim Martin County Manager Ben Eisner is excited about the expanded program.

“This kind of plugs Martin County into being able to compete in this emerging technological stage. Plugging the homes and businesses and other interested citizens to this really high-speed network becomes essential,” said Eisner.

According to NCDIT, the grant will provide access to 25,000 households and businesses across the state. Martin County’s portion of the award will provide high-speed internet access to 2,064 locations, approximately 95 percent of the county’s 2,181 eligible locations.

Martin County Commissioner Skip Gurganus was encouraged by the announcement.

“We currently have three broadband efforts in play in our county to the tune of approximately $20 million dollars with another several million potentially coming our way over the next couple of years,” said Gurganus. “The reality is that all said and done we may benefit from as much $20 plus million of broadband infrastructure here in the county and it will not have taken a penny from the general fund to do it.

For more information about the NCDIT Division of Broadband and Digital Equity and Governor Cooper’s plan to close the digital divide, visit ncbroadband.gov.