Roanoke Cooperative’s Fybe has been awarded $2.4 million in state funds to expand affordable access to high speed Internet to 826 locations across eight predominantly rural North Carolina counties that for years have been left lingering in a broadband desert.
Fybe, the cooperative's fiber business, will receive $2.4 million through the state’s Stop-Gap Solutions program to connect 826 locations across Bertie, Chowan, Gates, Granville, Halifax, Hertford, Martin, and Northampton counties. The fiber expansion is expected to be completed by the end of 2026.
“This investment allows us to continue expanding reliable, high-speed internet to rural communities that need it most,” Fybe President Bo Coughlin recently said of the expansion. “Access to broadband is essential for education, healthcare, business growth, and everyday life, and we’re proud to be part of the effort to ensure more North Carolinians can stay connected.”
North Carolina’s Stop-Gap Solutions program is designed to reach hard-to-access locations and close gaps in broadband coverage. The program is administered by the North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Opportunity and is funded primarily through the federal 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
In deployed markets, Fybe offers two tiers of fiber service that are significantly faster and cheaper than anything offered by regional private telecom monopolies; a symmetrical 100 megabit per second (Mbps) offering for $60 a month, or a symmetrical 2 gigabit per second (Gbps) offering for $80 per month. Both plans come with no hidden fees, usage caps, or long-term contracts.
In April of 2024, Fybe also won a $9 million Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grant to help bring fiber to the largely underserved, heavily-rural residents of Martin, Bertie, Halifax, and Hertford counties.
Fybe’s owner, the Roanoke Cooperative, was created in 1938 to bring electrification to rural residents overlooked by investor-funded electrical utilities. Like so many U.S. cooperatives, Roanoke is now leveraging that almost century-old experience to simultaneously expand rural access to affordable fiber and improve electrical grid maintenance and repair.
The cooperative says it owns and maintains more than 2,200 miles of electric distribution line serving approximately 14,200 member-owners, as well as roughly 2,300 miles of fiber infrastructure through its wholly owned fiber subsidiary, RoanokeConnect Holdings.
Inline image of Roanoke Cooperative Ag Safety Day courtesy of Roanoke Cooperative Facebook page
