Charter Communications scooped up three broadband grants in the latest award round for North Carolina’s Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) program. The funding round allocated a total of $30.8 million to extend broadband to a more than 13,000 households and 582 businesses.
Grant totals for winners were not provided. However, the state noted Charter won in three counties: Anson, Cabarrus and Polk. Other winners included Windstream in Union County, and Yadtel Telecommunications in Davie, Iredell, Rowan and Yadkin Counties.
Charter’s awards in the latest round add to GREAT grants it received in July for Avery, Bertie, Cleveland, Gaston, Lincoln and New Hanover Counties. That grant round allocated a total of $23.4 million to cover nearly 7,000 homes and 374 businesses.
The GREAT program is set to allocate up to $350 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding for broadband, with the remainder of awards set to be announced this month. Additional details about grant totals will be released once all the grants are announced.
Charter’s wins in North Carolina add to a growing list of grant awards it has received from various states. In July, it snagged $8.5 million from the state of Maryland and $7.88 million in Louisiana. Earlier in the year it also bagged a $49.9 million award in Kentucky, $12.2 million in Georgia and more than $50 million in Ohio.
Larger incumbents aside, new broadband player Brightspeed is also picking up some wins. Brightspeed’s parent company Apollo is in the process of acquiring Lumen Technologies’ ILEC assets in 20 states, in a deal that is expected to wrap in Q4. Brightspeed has already announced plans to push fiber to 3 million locations across that footprint.
In the July award cycle for North Carolina’s GREAT Program, Brightspeed picked up a grant in Hyde County. In June, it also secured a $1.5 million grant from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to cover 6,090 homes in Marinette County.