We use the internet for just about everything. It's needed for school, work, entertainment. Maybe even your laundry machine connects to it. But internet, let alone good internet is not a given in some rural areas. A lack of internet access in poses challenges for existing businesses and potential growth in rural areas.
Pamlico County has a population of 12,715 covering 582 square miles, according to the 2020 census. For comparison, the City of New Bern in neighboring Craven County has nearly triple that population. Pamlico County's seat, Bayboro, has just 1,161 people. Home to farmers, shrimpers, and boat lovers, many of the large-chain businesses set up along Highway 55, and the deeper you drive into the county, the more people are spread out.
For many homes, the internet is slow. According to the state's broadband survey, of 745 respondents so far, 114 households (15%) report no access to internet. Another 361 households out of 584 report speeds under 25/3 -- that is 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds. That may be sufficient enough for one device, but it's unable to support multiple devices. In March, the Federal Communications Commission ditched 25/3 as a benchmark for adequate service and raised it to 100/20.
Beth Bucksot, the county's economic development director, says that portrait makes it difficult to attract businesses to the area.
"Pretty much every inquiry we get looking for sites, you have to have broadband and they're looking for fiber. They want high speeds," Bucksot said. "They want to know fibers in the ground and they want. They want to know up to a gig is available because as you grow your operations and you expand your needs, you need more speed and capacity."
Bucksot is at the center of Pamlico County's efforts to expand broadband. Though the county can't build any lines itself, commissioners have shown a willingness to foot its part of the bill in federal and state projects. Those efforts largely contract that work out to existing providers in the area.
Though she doesn't have direct control, Bucksot does help local businesses find internet providers and works with the state in identifying project areas.
In one case, Bucksot helped Tommy Wheeler, owner of Tideland Grain Company, get his operations online. Tideland is an heirloom rice producer with a farm near Oriental. That farm began seven years ago and they've built a mill to process the crop. There are no internet lines running out to the property.
"We’ve had a couple of issues in rural North Carolina," Wheeler said. "Basic infrastructure in some cases is not a foregone conclusion."
Tideland does have internet access at its mill now. They use Starlink, a satellite internet provider. Their cameras and other equipment are connected to it, so they can keep an eye on the crop. The mill's automation equipment is also connected. Wheeler says he's now able to monitor the operation while he's away at the company's distribution center near Charlotte.
"I can see anywhere in the world to my phone that lets me know. Is the stored rice and grain cool? Is it taking heat? Does the aeration fans need to turn on?" he said.
For some of its employees, the work is remote, and a few of them live in Pamlico County. Wheeler says when their homes were finally connected to high-speed internet lines, it was a boon for his workers who could now reliably work from home. In one case, an employee's home was missed in an ongoing expansion project. Bucksot notified the internet company and the home was connected.
In the far eastern part of the county, Chris Matteo operates an oyster farm on Chadwick Creek. He, too, has Starlink, which he uses to monitor his farm and nursery. With one Starlink account, Matteo says it works for his current operations but that it may not support additional technology if he chooses to expand his business.
"I think it's a good band aid in the short run," he said. "It's probably not going to be appropriate for the long term unless they come up with some better solutions."
That solution is fiber -- or the goal at least. Fiber internet lines can handle higher volumes at faster speeds. Right now, there's just a few lines in Pamlico County along the busiest roads. Building it out to as many residents as possible is going to be costly. Laying one mile of fiber optic cable can cost anywhere between $15,000 and $50,000, depending on the terrain and if there's existing infrastructure available. That price tag is worth it, says Scott Mooneyham with the NC League of Municipalities.
"This not just about basic access, it's about good access that promotes economic growth," he said. "It's about having high speed broadband, not just minimal broadband in places."
High-speed internet opens the door to different opportunities. It allows people to work from home, kids can do homework on the laptop at home, and businesses and health clinics can set up and seamlessly connect to the outside world.
Though the benefits are plentiful, it's not in the interest of internet companies to build out in areas where people are spread out.
"They have to make a profit," Mooneyham said. "They are going to seek out the places where they can make the most money and where they can serve the densest areas and where they can and find the greatest number of people who are willing to pay for a higher level of service.
That's where federal and state spending come in. North Carolina launched the GREAT grant program in 2019, with $15 million for its first round of funding. Since then billions of dollars have poured in all over the nation to expand broadband.
In 2020, the federal government launched the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). The FCC held a reverse auction in which providers submitted bids for unserved or underserved census tracts. The lowest bidder won and was then responsible for servicing the area. Two companies — SpaceX, which runs Starlink, and Charter Communications, which operates Spectrum — won each of the available tracts in Pamlico County, bidding roughly $800,000 to connect 800 locations. For North Carolina, a total of $166 million in bids were placed.
The state has also received hundreds of millions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for broadband expansion.
The two largest programs, RDOF and GREAT grants, provide funding directly with companies to expand their networks. Other programs seek input from local officials to identify projects. The challenge right now is knowing exactly which homes have internet and at what speeds. Early maps by the federal government tried to identify areas in need based on census tract. But those weren't very accurate.
"The FCC looked at an entire census block, and if even a single home in that census block had internet, the FCC called it serviced," Nate Denny, deputy secretary for broadband and digital equity with the N.C. Department of Information Technology Division of Broadband and Digital Equity, said.
Now the state is taking over mapping, and this time they want to get as granular a picture as possible.
"We have to make sure the data helps us to stretch those funds as much as possible, and data is key to that," Denny said.
The State' Office for Rural Broadband and Digital Equity is urging people to fill it out online ncbroadband.gov/surveys or by texting "internet" to 919-750-0553.
So far, thousands of homes statewide have been hooked up as part of the federal and state programs, including hundreds in Pamlico County. According to the office's most recent estimates, from 2021, while 80% have access to internet with moderate speeds, just 7% of Pamlico County Residents have fiber. It's important to note that data is three years old, and a lot has happened since then. According to Bucksot, about 40% of the county is covered by fiber today.
