Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

$83 million dollars have been awarded to North Carolina in federal grants to give rural parts of the state broadband connectivity.

$19.9 million of these $83 million will go to the Lumbee River Electric Membership Corporation. This grant money will go to providing more "advanced broadband services via a high-speed fiber optic network to end users in service areas in southeastern North Carolina."

$25.3 million will go to "promote social and economic development" in rural western North Carolina for "critical digital services (TV, data and voice over internet protocol)."

$21.6 million will go to rural parts of Wilkes County lacking in internet services.

This grant money, coming from stimulus dollars, is the second part of a series of "broadband projects." MCNC, an indepent organization aimed at advancing North Carolina's network technology, was given $28.2 million to bring 480 more miles of fiber-optic networks to North Carolina.