Internet service providers interested in the new GREAT Grant Program can now apply for funding through an online portal, the state’s Broadband Infrastructure Office announced today.

The GREAT Grant Program is a $10 million grant program that allows internet service providers and electric membership cooperatives to compete for funding to lower financial barriers that prevent broadband expansion in rural communities. 

Modern education, health and economic systems require digital technology, Gov. Cooper said Wednesday at the North Carolina Digital Government Summit. However, hundreds of thousands of people in rural North Carolina are being left behind because they lack access to reliable high-speed broadband service.

Western Carolina University has reached an agreement with Morris Broadband to expand high-speed internet service to rural, underserved areas of the Cullowhee Valley area near campus through the use of existing power poles owned by the university’s electricity distribution service.

Some North Carolina K-12 students without home internet access to complete assigned homework will soon receive assistance through a $250,000, two-year grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The grant was recently awarded to the State Library of North Carolina and the Broadband Infrastructure Office of the N.C. Department of Information Technology.

The Community Broadband Playbook provides communities with tools, templates, examples and ideas to build broadband strategies addressing their needs.

AT&T will partner with FirstNet to build and operate the multimillion-dollar, high-speed wireless network as part of a federal program. The network will be designed to allow first responders to maintain communication during disasters and other large-scale events that could disable or disrupt other communication channels.  

A new report issued by the Charlotte Digital Inclusion Alliance, a group of government, education and community organizations, examines the lack of internet access and the impact in Charlotte.

More than 70 policy-makers, educators, community leaders and stakeholders convened Wednesday to address digital inequity in North Carolina, focusing on the homework gap: the difficulty or inability of students who lack high-speed internet connectivity at home to complete homework assignments, compared to their classmates with access. 

North Carolina residents can use a new interactive mapping tool to determine what internet access and speeds they have at their home or business.