High-speed network gets a green light

Published 7:51 pm Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Greg Coltrain, Tricounty Telecom CEO, announced recently that Tricounty Telecom has been awarded a $14.1 million grant/loan to provide an all-fiber-optic network to deliver high-speed Internet, video and voice services to areas of northeastern Beaufort County and areas of Hyde and Washington counties.

“Sen. Kay Hagan’s office called to officially notify Tricounty of the funding back in September of 2010,” said Coltrain. “This is great news for not only Tricounty, but most importantly for the customers we serve. Bringing fiber to our rural community is equivalent to the interstate highway system constructed years ago.”

Funding for this grant comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service in conjunction with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s broadband stimulus program. Seventy-five percent of the funding will come from a grant and 25 percent will come from an RUS loan.

The funding will enable Tricounty Telecom to build a fiber-to-the-premise network to provide services to homes, farms and critical-care facilities. The network will serve the communities of Acre, Burbage Crossroads, Beech Ridge, Five Points, Gaylord, Yeatesville, Jackson Swamp, Free Union, Pamlico Beach, Pantego, Pinetown, Douglas Crossroads, Everetts Crossroads, Hunter’s Bridge, Ransomville, Sidney, Slatestone, Smithton, Terra Ceia, Pungo, Winsteadville, Wilkinson Station and Grassy Ridge.

“This project will deploy an advanced fiber-optic network with inherent capability to deliver broadband service speeds of 80 Mbhps. Approximately 10,780 people stand to benefit, as do roughly 889 businesses and 32 community institutions,” Coltrain said. “In addition to the more than 27 construction jobs through individual contractors we estimate this project will create up front, it will provide a foundation for economic growth and job creation for decades to come. Currently, our projects are limited to the amount of bandwidth they can receive. Through this FTTP project, Tricounty plans to future-proof its network. This network will cover not only our telephone service, but increase services currently offered by our subsidiary in the cable TV market. Under the broadband stimulus program, we have 30 months to complete it.”