A broadband town hall on March 14 celebrated how far Western North Carolina has come in recent years in connectivity and featured comments from N.C. Department of Information Technology Secretary and State Chief Information Officer Teena Piccione.
“We’re here to help build a stronger and more connected and secure digital future for North Carolina, especially right here,” Piccione said.
The event featured multiple speakers, including Piccione, N.C. Sen. Kevin Corbin, N.C. Rep. Karl Gillespie, N.C. Rep. Mark Pless, director of the new Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina (GROW NC) Matt Calabria, NCDIT Director of the Broadband Infrastructure Office Angie Bailey and NCDIT Deputy Secretary of Broadband and Digital Opportunity Annette Taylor.
One of the handouts listed the status of broadband in the westernmost eight counties (Haywood, Jackson, Transylvania, Macon, Swain, Clay, Graham and Cherokee).
According to data as of November 2024, 49.67% of Macon County had high-speed internet with speeds over 100/20 Mbps., 24.2% had no reported service, 15.06% had fiber-optic lines, 79.85% had a broadband subscription and 88.55% had a computer device.
Macon trails behind the 62.17% of people in the eight-county region with 100/20 Mbps., 14.07% with no reported service, 19.82% with fiber-optic lines, 80.30% with a broadband subscription and 91% with a computer device.
“We’re not where we need to be, but we’re heading in the right direction,” Rep. Karl Gillespie of Franklin said. Corbin said the map looked much redder a few years ago, meaning there used to be more unserved locations.
Piccione said the 2025 goals are strengthening cybersecurity, improving the digital experience, closing the digital divide and operational efficiency.
“We have to make sure we are not resting until every single household and business in North Carolina is connected at an affordable rate,” Piccione said.
Piccione has a vision to make it so interacting with the state government is as easy as “placing an order on Amazon and everything is on a single page. This includes getting your driver’s license, knowing what services and parks are in your areas and more.”
Bailey explained how the American Rescue Plan Act funds the infrastructure grants the state has given out. The Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program will provide $1.53 billion to ensure all North Carolinians can access reliable high-speed internet by 2030.
Calabria emphasized the impacts of Hurricane Helene in WNC, including promoting their new online dashboard showing statistics. Corbin said out of over 1,300 roads and bridges damaged by Helene, 89% have been repaired and reopened.
Calabria said Gov. Josh Stein has a call every day at 9 a.m. and that Helene’s recovery is “a plurality topic.”
An upcoming focus of Helene’s recovery is debris pickups. So far, more than a million cubic yards have been pulled out of waterways and crews will be collecting right-of-way debris in the coming weeks.
Over 30 representatives from various WNC broadband providers attended the town hall. Gillespie commented that when they started having these broadband town halls, you could only get two or three providers in the room. After the speeches, the providers got to ask questions and give their experiences.
Many of the comments from providers centered around easement access for fiber optic lines, saying it’s a delay of several months. One said federal forestry permits take up to 18 months to receive, and by then, crews are gone to different states for other work. Another provider said power poll access is his first issue, then right-of-way access, and even then, you can only get so many power polls per permit and must re-up those permits continuously.