Nearly $270 million in broadband grants awarded within weeks.

• Author: Campbell, Colin
• Position: NCTREND: N.C. Tribune

Broadband internet expansion efforts took a big leap forward in recent weeks as the N.C. Department of Information Technology awarded $267 million in grants to internet providers, doling out the majority of the $350 million in federal funding allocated by the legislature I last year.

Lawmakers on the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Information Technology got an update on the effort. The grants--by far the largest ever in the programs history--were announced in three batches as the application process wrapped up, giving internet providers an infusion of funding to expand into areas that lack high-speed internet. Nate Denny, DIT's deputy secretary for broadband and digital equity, said 92 of...