Impact and Progress
Remove Barriers, Strengthen Leadership
The Collaborative Broadband Initiative (CBI) helps rural communities navigate the complex process of expanding broadband access by building local capacity, providing technical expertise, and supporting community leadership. While North Carolina's broadband progress reflects the combined efforts of federal, state, local, nonprofit, and private-sector partners, the CBI has helped communities in Western and northeastern North Carolina capitalize on historic funding opportunities and achieve measurable results, which are depicted and described below for the regions the program covered.
These results demonstrate what is possible when historic broadband investments are paired with strong local leadership and trusted technical assistance. By helping communities plan projects, navigate funding opportunities, and overcome implementation challenges, the CBI has strengthened local capacity and helped ensure that broadband investments translate into lasting benefits for rural North Carolina.
2022-2025 Interactive Broadband Coverage Maps
From June 2022 to December 2025, northeastern and western North Carolina regions served by the Collaborative Broadband Initiative saw significant improvement in high-speed broadband service. These maps depict the changes to previously unserved and underserved locations receiving service over this time period.
During this same time, the Federal Communications Commission updated, corrected, and sometimes re‑assigned its list of broadband‑serviceable locations and provider-reported coverage areas. Specific points or locations may appear to move, disappear, or lose service in this visualization even if service at that address did not actually change.
West
East
Case Studies
The CBI recognizes that achieving universal broadband access is a shared responsibility requiring the expertise, commitment, and collaboration of many organizations and stakeholders. Broadband deployment, adoption, and accessibility efforts across rural North Carolina are strengthened by the contributions of regional partners, community leaders, broadband practitioners, and organizations working collectively. The resources highlighted in this report — gathered from partners across the state — reflect the importance of continued investment in broadband infrastructure and digital inclusion strategies and demonstrate the importance of coordinated efforts to connect communities and expand opportunity. Read more below about some of these partners:
Western North Carolina
Western North Carolina entered the broadband expansion era with some of the state's greatest deployment challenges due to mountainous terrain, dispersed populations, and difficult construction conditions. Despite these barriers, and the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene, the region has achieved exceptional progress. Here are key results of the CBI's work from June 2022 to December 2025:
- Reduced unserved and underserved locations from 113,869 (24.7%) to 10,894 (2.3%)
- Achieved a 22.4 percentage-point reduction in unserved, underserved, and unfunded locations — nearly double the statewide improvement
- 12 of 18 counties exceeded the statewide median for percentage-point improvement
- 12 counties also exceeded the statewide median for total newly served or funded locations
- Jackson County ranked first statewide, adding or securing funding for 13,814 broadband locations
- Targeted technical assistance helped keep an estimated $90 million in broadband infrastructure investments on track
Northeastern North Carolina
Northeastern North Carolina also faced significant barriers, including sparse populations, economic challenges, wetlands, and waterways that increase deployment costs. Even so, the region experienced some of the most dramatic broadband improvements in North Carolina. Key CBI results from June 2022 through December 2025 include:
- Reduced unserved and underserved locations from 49,523 (27.7%) to 1,387 (0.8%)
- Achieved a 26.9 percentage-point reduction in unserved, underserved, and unfunded locations
- 11 of 15 counties exceeded the statewide median for percentage-point improvement
- Gates County improved 80 places in statewide broadband rankings
- Hyde County, once the state's least-served county, improved from 97.5% unserved/underserved to 35th statewide
- Tyrrell County posted the 5th-largest percentage-point improvement statewide
- Halifax County ranked 7th statewide in newly served or funded locations, reaching 11,443 locations (43.4%)