YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. — Today, March 14, the North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s (NCDIT) Division of Broadband and Digital Opportunity announced more than $10 million in Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) program projects to connect 2,762 households and businesses in Cherokee, Clay and Macon counties to high-speed internet. These projects will be funded by more than $7.5 million from the federal American Rescue Plan awarded by NCDIT and nearly $2.6 million from selected broadband providers.
Funds from CAB will be used to expand BRMEMC’s fiber-optic network to 1,602 locations in Clay County, North Carolina.
“This is excellent news and we’re fortunate to receive CAB funding that will ensure that more of our members in Clay will have broadband access. Clay County will be the first county within our five-county service territory to be wholly-served with fiber-optic internet service, this will equate to 99% of residents in Clay having access to fiber,” said Director of Broadband Alex King.
The CAB program’s procurement process creates a partnership between counties and NCDIT to identify areas that need access, solicit proposals from prequalified internet service providers and quickly make awards. Awardees must agree to provide high-speed service that reliably meets or exceeds speeds of 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload.
As soon as we’re able to review the final contract from NCDIT, we’ll announce the locations this funding will cover. BRMEMC engineers will quickly begin the planning and design of the project with the construction beginning a few months later. The project will be completed in phases. Residents are encourage to sign up for service immediately at brmemc.com/fiber. As portions of the project are completed we will activate the fiber service to residents that have signed up.
It’s important for residents to sign up early during the grant period because all construction fees are covered under the grant during the fiber build.
BRMEMC’s fiber-optic network now serves over 18,500 customers within its five-county service territory, and maintains approximately 2,941 miles of fiber-optic lines.
For more on Blue Ridge Mountain EMC, visit brmemc.com or follow BRMEMC on social media.
About Blue Ridge Mountain EMC
Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation is a member-owned electric cooperative headquartered in Young Harris, Georgia, serving over 56,000 member-customers in Cherokee and Clay Counties in Western North Carolina, and Towns, Union and Fannin Counties in Northeast Georgia. Organized locally in 1937, BRMEMC has invested well over $300 million in physical infrastructure in its mission to provide reliable electric and broadband services to its members where those services would not otherwise have been available. Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.
