McDowell County gets state money for high-speed internet

Recently, the NC Department of Information Technology, Division of Broadband and Digital Capital announced $67 million in Broadband Access Completion program money that was awarded to connect 15,835 homes and businesses in 15 counties to the Internet with high speed.

The money consists of $35 million from the US Federal Rescue Plan awarded by NCDIT, nearly $16 million from counties and more than $16 million from broadband providers, according to a news release from NCDIT.

The program allows counties to partner with NCDIT to identify areas in need of access and receive proposals from Internet service providers to provide money to expand access. Service providers must agree to provide high-speed services that reliably meet or exceed 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload speeds.

“Through these awards, more North Carolinians will be able to access affordable and reliable high-speed Internet so they can participate in our increasingly digital world,” said Governor Roy Cooper announced. “I appreciate the partnership between NCDIT, county leaders and broadband providers to help close our state’s digital divide.”

One of those awards was given to McDowell County, which is working with Internet provider Skyrunner Inc.

County Manager Ashley Wooten said he has been discussing the Broadband Access Completion grant with the McDowell County Board of Commissioners for the past year.

“The selected proposal was submitted by Skyrunner Inc. and will provide high-speed Internet to 795 locations in the county,” Wooten said.

The total cost of the project is $2,472,488, which includes $865,371 from the county. Wooten said the county’s money will come from McDowell’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation. The remainder will be paid for by state funding and Skyrunner.

In addition to McDowell, the division provided money to expand Internet in Avery, Beaufort, Cabarrus, Chatham, Chowan, Cleveland, Haywood, Jones, Lee, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Pitt and Union counties.

“By partnering directly with county leaders, we can focus on their individual community needs and together make decisions that will benefit their constituents,” the NCDIT Secretary and State Chief Information Officer said in the release. Jim Weaver. “Thanks to our extensive mapping, prior pre-qualification process and ISP accountability, we posted these counties’ work goals in March and April and worked with them to price new broadband projects in less than three months.” €