Bladen County, NC – FOCUS Broadband announced that high-speed internet service is now available in the first phases of a project aimed at bringing faster internet to rural areas near the Tar Heel community in western Bladen County. Residents and businesses located along portions of Chickenfoot Road, Purdie-Hall Road and Tar Heel Road can now sign up for fiber optic internet service with speeds up to 1 Gigabit. Additional phases in these areas will be available in the coming weeks.
“We are excited to offer high-speed internet service to residents near the Tar Heel community,” said FOCUS Broadband CEO, Keith Holden. “We are grateful to the Bladen County Board of Commissioners for partnering with us on this project, and to the North Carolina Department of Information Technology, Governor Roy Cooper, and other state officials for continuing to make these funds available. Helping connect residents to reliable, faster internet is what we do, and we look forward to seeing the impacts this will have on the residents and businesses in the area.”
In 2022, FOCUS Broadband partnered with Bladen County government to apply for a grant through the North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) Grant Program. The intent of the grant was to bring fiber optic internet service to areas of the Tar Heel community and to residents and businesses located on Highway 701 between Clarkton and Elizabethtown. The partnership was awarded a $2.9 million GREAT grant, and FOCUS Broadband will contribute $307,989 in matching funds to complete the project. Once completed, more than 727 homes and businesses will have access to reliable high-speed internet.
These are just the first of several phases in the Tar Heel community where high-speed internet service will soon be available from FOCUS Broadband. Additional phases will be available in northwestern sections of Bladen County within the coming weeks. Construction is also underway along Highway 701 between Clarkton and Elizabethtown and should also start to have service available in the coming weeks.
To find out where FOCUS Broadband currently has high-speed internet service available in Bladen County and to learn where it will soon be available, residents and businesses can call 833-981-4152 or visit www.fasterbladen.com. Since FOCUS Broadband is a participant in the federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), customers who qualify and sign-up for ACP can receive a monthly discount of up to $30 off the price of internet service with some options that would make internet service at no cost.
About FOCUS Broadband
FOCUS Broadband is a member-owned cooperative providing a multitude of communications services, including telephone, business services, wireless, broadband internet, cable television, and home security, in Brunswick County, North Carolina. FOCUS Broadband provides services in additional areas through its wholly owned subsidiary, ATMC, LLC. FOCUS Broadband is the largest communications cooperative in North Carolina and one of the largest in the country. For more information on products and services from FOCUS Broadband, visit www.focusbroadband.com.
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