MARTIN COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) – Residents throughout Martin County report ongoing difficulties connecting to the internet, particularly in more remote areas.
Jacki Bryant, a resident, shared her experience: “I first started out with Viasat, which is satellite internet, because we can’t get any kind of cable ran that way. Now I have Starlink, but I’m still having issues because I’m so far out in the country.”
A grant from the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NC DIT) aims to address these issues by improving internet access. A total of $112 million will be distributed across 19 counties in North Carolina, including Martin County.
“We need it; we need it like yesterday,” said Mika Davis, the Martin Memorial Library Manager.
According to the NC DIT’s website, Brightspeed has been designated as the internet service provider for Martin County. The initiative will provide high-speed internet to 2,064 locations, which covers about 95% of the county’s 2,181 eligible areas.
Many residents have had to search for locations with Wi-Fi just to complete their work. Davis mentioned, “We’ve seen a lot of them have to bring their entire computers with their printers and everything that entails. Bring it and use one of our meeting rooms to work that day.”
Davis also noted that the issue escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when virtual learning became necessary. “When the children were trying to do their schoolwork from home, we saw a lot of children sitting outside of the library on the concrete just trying to get Wi-Fi signal.”
The NC DIT plans to launch a dashboard in late July to detail the progress of the new internet services.
Edgecombe County and North Hampton County will also receive a portion of the funding for high-speed internet from this program.
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