SPINDALE, N.C. (WNCW) - Whether a home in Western North Carolina qualifies for help getting internet starts with a map, and the people who study that map say it does not always match what is on the ground.
HOW THE MAP WORKS
State and federal governments rely on data to decide which homes need help, said Angie Bailey, director of the Broadband Infrastructure Office at the N.C. Department of Information Technology.
Two terms matter most. "Unserved means no access to high-speed internet," Bailey said. "Underserved means a household or business has access, but it's not enough capacity or speed to do the things you may need to do in a day."
The foundation is data that broadband providers submit to the Federal Communications Commission every six months, Bailey said. It lists the speed and technology type available at every location they serve. "That data is the foundation for all the broadband programs across the country," she said.
WHERE THE MAP CAN MISS
Brian Rathbone, a broadband consultant and former state broadband office staffer, said the data has a built-in weakness: it comes from the providers themselves.
He pointed to what he called the ten-day rule. "If you could reasonably serve a location within ten business days, you can indicate it as served," Rathbone said. He said providers tend to overstate their coverage, cable companies in particular, "not even out of malice."
Rathbone said "served" can also mean a price most families cannot pay. He described being told it would cost $3,500 to run service up his brother's driveway, and $10,000 for his own. "You can't indicate something is served if you're going to charge that much money to serve it, because practically it's not," he said.
Bailey said that is why the state does not rely on federal data alone. The office also takes service inquiries from residents and businesses. "There could be fiber built to someone's driveway, but their driveway may be super long, and maybe that wasn't included in the grant," she said. "So we needed an additional solution to help that person pay for the infrastructure to go up their driveway."
THE BUSINESS CASE
The biggest barrier to building in unserved areas is often not technology but the business case, Bailey said. Public money helps companies cover the up-front cost. "It's a partnership with these broadband providers to help pay for the capital so that they can reach these areas," she said.
Even with a subsidy, companies need customers, said Sarah Thompson, vice president of economic opportunity and strategic initiatives at Dogwood Health Trust. "You still need people to adopt it, to sign up and pay their monthly subscription, to make that company want to be there," Thompson said.
Rathbone said the way grants are awarded has also shaped who gets built first. Smaller providers are less likely to win financing, he said, and there has been a tendency to fund the cheapest projects, "almost close to where the private sector would have done it themselves."
WHERE THE MONEY COMES FROM
Dave Kaiser, senior director of policy advocacy and innovation at the N.C. Rural Center, said the funding has built up over about a decade through several federal programs. He named the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The last of those created the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, known as BEAD.
Bailey said BEAD is administered federally, so federal rules define how the money can be awarded. North Carolina ran an application round last year for providers to serve eligible locations across the state. The providers are now being contracted and will have four years to build, with construction starting next year, she said.
Rathbone cautioned that awards are not free money. "Usually, if we have a grant, the grant is going to require them to put up thirty-five to fifty percent of the money," he said.
He said North Carolina received about $1.5 billion in BEAD money. By his account, about $300 million has been spent, leaving roughly $1.2 billion. The state broadband office told WNCW a second round of BEAD funding was announced earlier this year, and how the remaining dollars will be used is still being worked out. Bailey said the state will keep monitoring which locations remain unserved or underserved and consider additional programs.
Some communities are better equipped to compete for the money than others, Rathbone said. "The places that need the help the most have the fewest resources to apply to it."
FILLING IN THE GAPS
Dogwood Health Trust has stepped in to help with that, Thompson said. The foundation does not fund fiber construction, she said, but it paid to map the gaps. "We are making sure that our communities know exactly where their gaps still remain," she said. The foundation also supports the Blue Ridge Broadband Alliance, an advocacy coalition that helps residents speak up if their needs are not being met.
WHAT'S NEXT
In Part 3, "Fiber, Satellite and the Copper Question," airing Nov. 13, WNCW looks at what kind of internet should be built in the mountains and what happens as copper phone lines disappear. Part 4, "Beyond the Wire," airs Nov. 20.
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TAGS: Still Waiting, More to the Story, rural broadband, BEAD, FCC broadband map, Western North Carolina, N.C. Rural Center, Dogwood Health Trust, NCDIT Broadband Infrastructure Office, WNCW
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