NCDIT’s Broadband Infrastructure Office is seeking applications to provide grant funding to private providers of broadband services to facilitate the deployment of broadband service to areas of the state unserved with broadband through the Growing Rural Economic with Access to Technology (GREAT) Grant program.
Donor Name: N.C. Department of Information Technology (NCDIT)
State: North Carolina
County: Selected Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 05/04/2022
Grants Size: $4 million
Grant Duration: 2 years
Details:
The GREAT Grant Program is a competitive grant program. Applications must propose to deploy broadband infrastructure to unserved households and businesses at certain speed thresholds. Applications are scored based upon the Scoring Matrix outlined within the GREAT Grant legislation which primarily assesses numbers of locations, speed and cost. Applications receiving the highest score receive priority status for the awarding of grants.
The following definitions apply:
- Eligible Project: An eligible project is a discrete and specific project located in an unserved economically distressed area seeking to provide broadband service to homes, businesses, and community anchor points not currently served. Eligible projects do not include middle mile, backhaul, and other similar projects not directed at broadband service to end users. If a contiguous project area crosses from one eligible county into one or more eligible adjacent counties, for the purposes of this section, the project shall be deemed to be located in the county where the greatest number of unserved households are proposed to be served.
- Prospective broadband recipient: A household, home, business, community anchor point, agricultural operation, or agricultural processing facility that is currently unserved and is identified in an application submitted in accordance with this section.
- Household: A house, apartment, single room, or other group of rooms, if occupied or intended for occupancy as separate living quarters, and where the occupants to not live with any other persons in the structure and there is direct access from the outside or through a common hall.
- Business: Any lawful trade, investment, or other purpose or activity, whether conducted or undertaken for profit. The term also includes community anchor points, agricultural operations, and agricultural processing facilities
- Agriculture
Funding Information
- A single grant award shall not exceed $4 million. No combination of grant awards involving any single county may exceed $8 million in a fiscal year.
- Grant Duration: 2 years
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible grant recipients are private providers of broadband services, including cooperatively organized entities, or any partnerships formed between cooperatively organized entities, private providers, or any combination thereof.
For more information, visit N.C. Department of Information Technology (NCDIT).