Press Releases

The COVID-19 pandemic has proved challenging for North Carolinians without reliable and affordable high-speed internet service and adequate internet-enabled devices at home.

North Carolina Digital Inclusion Week aims to underscore the importance of digital equity and to prompt digital inclusion efforts across the state to improve broadband access, foster adoption, increase computer ownership and promote digital literacy.

The initiative is part of a month-long campaign by the N.C. Department of Information Technology to educate people about cybersecurity threats and ways they can guard against them.

Internet service providers and electric membership cooperatives can now apply for $32 million in pandemic relief grant funding to help bring high-speed internet access to rural North Carolina.

Nearly $40 million is going to NC Student Connect, a partnership tackling internet connectivity gaps that disrupt remote learning for N.C. students.

Five new projects will expand high-speed internet access for residents in three rural counties, thanks to more than $4 million in supplemental GREAT grant funding through the COVID-19 Recovery Act.

People living and working in 11 rural counties will get expanded high-speed internet service thanks to more than $12 million in grants awarded by Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration.

Thomas Parrish IV will fill the role held by Tracy Doaks, who announced in July to lead a nonprofit dedicated to broadband expansion in rural areas.

The study identified the broadband, health care and telehealth assets and gaps in the 20 coal-impacted counties in the Appalachian region in order to design pilot programs that leverage technology to provide appropriate clinical interventions, improve the local population’s health, increase local workforce participation and ultimately improve local economies.

The North Carolina Broadband Survey will help the N.C. Department of Information Technology gain a better understanding of internet speeds and the need for high-speed internet in the state.