Bids open for companies to provide broadband internet to remaining homes in Burke

Burke County officials have said that 100% of homes and businesses in the county should have access to broadband internet by the end of 2026.

The N.C. Department of Information Technology’s (NCDIT) Division of Broadband and Digital Equity recently posted Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) program scopes of work to expand high-speed internet access to unserved and underserved homes and businesses in the following counties:

• Avery County (approximately 1,000 eligible locations)
• Burke County (approximately 3,500 eligible locations)
• Cleveland County (approximately 2,800 eligible locations)
• Jones County (approximately 313 eligible locations)
• Lee County (approximately 3,100 eligible locations)
• Pamlico County (approximately 715 eligible locations)
• Polk County (approximately 2,900 eligible locations)

Internet service providers that are prequalified to participate in state broadband expansion programs can now submit proposals to provide broadband to all or a portion of eligible locations within each county. 

For Burke County, those eligible are Foothills Broadband, Spectrum and Brightspeed.

While NCDIT said there are approximately 3,500 eligible locations in Burke County, county officials said in February there are around 1,294 homes and business who lack any type of internet access. The majority of those “rooftops” are in the Jonas Ridge and Brendletown areas of Burke County, according to officials.

But the county has around $4 million from federal and state allocations that will be awarded to providers to connect the remaining areas, Burke officials have said.

Burke County Manager Brian Epley told The News Herald this week that bids are still open to companies to bid on work to connect those unserved areas. He said once the bids are closed, county officials will met with the state to make the selections for the work to be done.

Jeff Brooks, an administrator for the CAB program within NCDIT, said he has worked with more than 80 counties on the program and has found that Burke County staff and officials have been more engaged than any other county in the state and on top of getting households and businesses connected to broadband internet.

Brooks said the scope of work for Burke, which is a bid document, went up last Thursday and companies will have 45 days to respond (submit bids for the work). NCDIT says companies bidding for work in Burke County have until noon on May 13 to submit bids.

Brooks said once proposals come back in, NCDIT will open them and make sure they have all the documentation required. Once they have all the required documents, they will send it to the county evaluation team as part of the evaluation process before making a decision on which company gets which job, he said.

NCDIT said each county’s scope of work is posted at ncbroadband.gov/active-cab-proposals and will include the evaluation criteria by which an internet service provider will be chosen and the instructions for submitting proposals. A map of each county’s eligible locations is located on the NC OneMap’s CAB Planning Tool.  

NCDIT said the CAB program creates a partnership among state government, county leaders and internet service providers to fund broadband deployment projects with $400 million from the American Rescue Plan. All CAB projects require matching investments from counties, which will be combined with NCDIT’s award and the prequalified service provider’s contribution. 

For more information about the NCDIT Division of Broadband and Digital Equity, visit ncbroadband.gov.