Congressman Larry Kissell announced Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded North Carolina a $28,225,518 grant to build a sustainable middle-mile broadband network across 37 counties in the state.

“As we work to recover from this recession, we have to be able to capitalize on this opportunity. Making broadband services more accessible to our rural communities and businesses only enhances our ability to market our region to potential businesses,” Kissell said. “Having a strong infrastructure which includes broadband is a key component to our ability to take advantage of future economic opportunities.”

The funding has been awarded to the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, and will go to building a 494-mile, middle-mile broadband network to serve almost half of the population of North Carolina. The fiber network would increase existing bandwidth by 10 to 20 times in the underserved areas and connect 685 miles of existing infrastructure in the urbanized central part of the state. It will expand the reach of the North Carolina Research and Education Network. It currently connects the public University of North Carolina system, all public K-12 schools in the state, a majority of independent colleges and universities as well as 20 of the 58 institutions in the North Carolina Community College system. The expansion will connect all 58 community colleges, the remaining independent colleges, charter schools, 50 free healthcare clinics, 179 county health agencies and hospitals, 181 libraries and three of the largest state museums.

It will make broadband more easily accessible to approximately 1.8 million households and more than 1,000 businesses.