Cumberland County and the state of North Carolina have partnered up to bring high-speed internet to 1,692 previously unserved locations throughout the county.
The collaboration is part of the latest $112 million in Completing Access to Broadband projects announced by the N.C. Dept. of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Equity. The state has given $2.4 million in ARPA funds for two Cumberland County projects, according to a news release. ARPA, or the American Rescue Plan Act, was a $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package signed by President Joe Biden in 2021 to help municipalities recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. North Carolina received more than $8 billion in funds, according to the N.C. Pandemic Recovery Office.
Cumberland County’s CAB projects will see two internet providers — Brightspeed and StarVision — provide high-speed internet access to roughly 74% of the 2,286 locations in the county deemed eligible for the program by the state, according to the release. Brightspeed will provide access for 1,398 locations at a total cost of $5.7 million, while StarVision will handle 294 locations at a cost of $1.1 million, the release said. As part of the program’s requirements, that access must include a minimum speed of 100 Mbps for downloads and uploads. The average download speed in the state is roughly 231 Mbps, CNET reported in June. According to internet speed testing site Ookla, the median download speed in Fayetteville is 343.49 Mbps, while the median upload speed is 31.7 Mbps.
The CAB program only ensures installation of high-speed internet; it does not pay for subscriptions. Eligibility for potential internet service providers was determined by qualifications laid out in a 2023 request for proposals, with criteria including:
- Financial competency
- “Operational maturity”
- “Protection of end user ands operating data”
- Ability to “design, develop and deploy network assets”
- “Documentation of network security processes”
- Financial metrics
According to the Division of Broadband and Digital Equity’s grant tracker, the state provided just over $2 million for the Brightspeed project and $396,589 for the StarVision project. The county used its own ARPA funds to provide $3.7 million for the Brightspeed locations and $736,522 for the StarVision sites, the tracker shows.
Construction must be completed by Oct. 31, 2026, according to the grant tracker.
N.C. Dept. of Information Technology Deputy Secretary for Broadband and Digital Equity Nate Denny told CityView the origins of the CAB program date back to 2018, when the state created its first grant program encouraging private companies to invest in high-speed internet infrastructure.
“When you look statewide, the need is really in the billions,” Denny said. “There are more than 250,000 unserved homes and businesses across North Carolina in every county in the state … And the [Covid-19] pandemic really shone a light on the urgency of this problem.”
Thanks to ARPA money, Gov. Roy Cooper and the General Assembly were able to allocate more than $1 billion for internet expansion, beginning with the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grant, Denny said. Cumberland County received $3.2 million for that grant, with construction set to be complete by April 10, 2025, according to the grant tracker.
“That program still had some limitations, because internet providers came to us with their ideas, and we had to score it on a very limited set of criteria, set by statute by the General Assembly,” Denny said. “We needed a more flexible program, and we needed one that allowed for more input and leadership from local communities.”
And so the CAB program was born, creating partnerships between state officials and county staff where counties could weigh in on their needs.
“The two Completing Access to Broadband awards in Cumberland County represent the state and local governments working together to identify public-private partnerships to address that need,” Denny said. “So we’re really excited about these projects.”
According to Denny, the Dept. of Information Technology created a procurement process that ultimately selected 41 potential internet providers who could compete for CAB projects throughout the state. That’s how Cumberland County found Brightspeed and StarVision. According to ISPReports, Spectrum, Brightspeed, MetroNet, T-Mobile, Verizon, Dish, DirecTV, HughesNet, Viasat and Starlink currently provide internet services in the county.
“What we wanted to do is basically bring a short list of qualified, competent, capable internet providers that we know can address local needs and use the public funding responsibly,” he said. “And we turned to those pre-approved providers in issuing a scope of work that the county has helped design.”
Denny said the partnership between his division and counties includes the following steps:
- A series of meetings to design the county’s scope of work (what they are looking for in a project).
- The county fills out paperwork to submit to the state, including a commitment form stating how much they are willing to invest in the project.
- The state works with the county to map underserved and unserved areas, comparing analyses by “state GIS experts” to county data.
- After receiving bids from the potential internet providers, another series of meetings takes place with county officials to discuss which bid would best fit the project.
- An internet provider is selected, and the project can move forward.
Assistant County Manager Sally Shutt told CityView the partnership with the state has been crucial for Cumberland County.
“It’s been a great partnership,” she said. “It’s a priority our commissioners had set, and then to be able to use this funding and to have a plan — with this project alone, 74% of our county’s over 2,000 locations that were eligible will be reached.”
Expanding internet access will impact Cumberland County residents’ lives for the better, Shutt said.
“It will affect so many aspects of their lives, whether it’s education, being able to do telehealth, being able to access so many services,” she said.
The county plans to apply for another CAB project and other Dept. of Information Technology funding opportunities that will be launched in the coming months, Shutt said.
“These people have been waiting a long time,” she said.
Reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at lsolomon@cityviewnc.com.
This story was made possible by contributions to CityView News Fund, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization committed to an informed democracy.
