Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

JACKSON – The Northampton County Board of Commissioners approved an agreement during their meeting on Sept. 4 to provide matching funds for the state’s Completing Access to Broadband (CAB) project.

The project is part of the state’s ongoing efforts to get more people connected to the internet, and it is being administered by the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT).

County Manager Julian Phillips presented the Memorandum of Understanding to the board, noting that the amount required from the county will be $351,414. That amount equals five percent of the total CAB project in Northampton County.

NCDIT will contribute 80 percent ($5.6 million) and the internet service providers involved in the project will contribute 15 percent (a total of $1.05 million). NCDIT selected Brightspeed and Spectrum as the two providers for the CAB project in Northampton.

Phillips noted that this match is for “Phase One” of CAB and is expected to help bring internet to approximately 900 eligible locations throughout the county. There is also a “Phase Two” Stop Gap program which will follow to help reach those not included in Phase One. Phillips stated that Phase Two does not require a county match.

Commissioner Melvetta Broadnax Taylor asked where would the matching funds come from in the county’s budget. Phillips answered that they would use unrestricted money from their Fund Balance.

Board Chair Charles Tyner said they’d been trying to tackle solutions to broadband access for a while, and hoped this project would help them move forward.

The commissioners unanimously approved the Memorandum of Understanding after a motion from Ed Martin and a second from Broadnax Taylor. Commissioner Kelvin Edwards was unable to attend that evening.

Earlier in the meeting, the commissioners also heard an update from a Fybe representative about their own efforts to provide broadband in Northampton County.

Sarah Tinkham, who works in Community and Government Relations with the company, gave an overview of their progress so far and what they plan to do next.

Fybe is a subsidiary of Roanoke Cooperative, and it currently serves over 21,000 homes and businesses throughout seven counties.

Tinkham explained that they have placed 400 miles of fiber throughout Northampton County so far, and expect to include 97 more miles by the end of 2024.

Lasker was their pilot site in Northampton County, but they have expanded also to places in the northeast and southeast parts of the county. They expect to have service available in Jackson, Conway, Severn, and other areas in between by the end of the year. And future service areas include locations such as Seaboard, Garysburg, and Pleasant Hill.

After the presentation, Tyner thanked her for all the work Fybe has done so far to bring internet access to the county.