Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) Program
August 2020, The NC Department of Information Technology’s Broadband Infrastructure Office announced that Spectrum Southeast, LLC had been selected for funding under the 2019-2020 GREAT Grant Program in the amount of $265,416.92. The required match for this project is a minimum of 35% of the total project cost. These funds are awarded as of the date of this letter for the project entitled, “Charter/Spectrum - Rockingham Co. (2020)” to deploy broadband services to approximately 222 households, businesses, agricultural operations, and community anchor institutions in Rockingham County.
Areas included in this project will include parts of Grogan Rd (Stoneville), Arrowhead Rd (Ruffin), North Hundley Drive (Eden), Bethany Rd (Bethany) and Humphrey's Ridge (Stokesdale). Construction is complete on Grogan Rd (11 address points) and Arrowhead Rd (22 address points). Spectrum is actively performing walkouts and ordering materials for the remaining projects in this phase.
November 2020, The NC Department of Information Technology’s Broadband Infrastructure Office announced that Spectrum Southeast, LLS had been selected for second round of funding. Funds are awarded as of the date of this letter for the project to deploy broadband services to approximately 339 households, businesses, agricultural operations, and community anchor institutions in Rockingham County.
This project is still in the contract stage and the exact address points to be served will be updated once the contract is finalized between Spectrum Southeast and NCDIT.
Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
December 2020, The Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I auction (Auction 904), 180 bidders won $9.2 billion over 10 years to provide broadband to 5.2M locations in 49 states and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Charter (CCO Holdings) won 565 locations for buildout via the FCC auctions. Rockingham County is still awaiting details about timeline for this project.
County Broadband Survey Map
Rockingham County conducted broadband surveys in late 2019 and 2020. The map below shows a general outline of areas of inadequate bandwidth throughout the county. There are areas that may be highlighted that do have access to Internet and areas that are not highlighted that do not have access to broadband Internet. This map is only used for the purpose of showing general areas of need.
