Unfortunately, with the backing of a Fortune 100, for-profit cable company, a bill has been filed in the North Carolina legislature that would shift costs to “make ready” utility poles for new broadband infrastructure to electric co-ops and their members. Admittedly expansion has been slow, but LREMC has taken this approach to ensure that our efforts have as little impact on our rates as possible. In conjunction with Connected Technologies LLC, LREMC began to offer Bluewave fiber connections just under a decade ago to meet our rural communities' needs.Īlso, LREMC has made our existing electric utility poles available to other communication providers through pole attachments agreements to hasten the deployment of broadband access across our service area. Rural communities have long-awaited high-speed connections because for-profit cable providers have been unwilling to invest in broadband infrastructure in sparsely populated areas.ĭespite that challenge, electric cooperatives for years have supported efforts to close the digital divide by exploring local solutions and facilitating the expansion of access to broadband providers to utility poles quickly and at a fair rate.

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It is critical that rural broadband expand quickly, efficiently and fairly - and that as grant funding creates a new market for broadband providers in our communities, we join together to reject efforts by for-profit special interests that would shift costs to North Carolina's rural consumers. While the pandemic has shone a bright light on the need for expanded rural broadband, the issue is something that we in rural areas have prioritized for many years.Īs the President and CEO of Lumbee River EMC (LREMC), an electric cooperative serving rural members in Robeson, Scotland, Hoke, Moore and Cumberland Counties, I am grateful that more than $140 million in state and federal funding has recently been awarded to connect unserved and underserved rural residents in our state.

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