PENDER COUNTY, FASTER INTERNET IS ON THE WAY!
Great news! FOCUS Broadband was recently awarded a grant through the North Carolina Department of Information Technology GREAT Grant Program totaling $4 million dollars to provide service to approximately 1,131 homes and businesses in Pender County. The grant will allow FOCUS Broadband to provide a 100% fiber optic network with speeds of up to 1 Gigabit per second to residents and businesses located in rural communities throughout the county. FOCUS Broadband will contribute $547,000 in matching funds to complete the project.
In 2020, FOCUS Broadband was awarded a grant by the United States Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Broadband Grant program to connect over 17,000 people living in rural Pender County to broadband speeds of up to one Gigabit. The grant, totaling $21.6 million dollars, will require a $7.2 million dollar contribution from FOCUS Broadband bringing the total project cost to $28.8 million dollars. With these funds, FOCUS Broadband will build a state-of-the-art fiber optic network past over 7,000 unserved and under-served homes and businesses in the Atkinson, Currie, Mooretown, Maple Hill and White Stocking communities. Work on this project is currently underway.
We would like to offer our sincere thanks to the many residents, farmers, business owners and community leaders who supported us in our work to secure this grant. Your support was a key factor in helping make our application a success. We are excited to be able to serve you.
Please refer to the map below to see where the internet will be available.
Click Here for Pender County Construction Updates
May 17, 2023- Service is available in areas near Still Bluff, Canetuck, and Atkinson. Additional areas in Canetuck along Heading Bluff Road and Canetuck Road will be service available soon. We anticipate bringing several phases online throughout the spring. Work is also on-going in the eastern part of the project near Holly Shelter. Several phases have been built and should be ready to have service available soon. We are grateful to Four County EMC for allowing us to use a portion of their fiber optic network to cross the Cape Fear River. This has allowed us to connect service to Pender County more quickly.
Additional areas near Penderlea, Watha, Stag Park, Rocky Point and Willard will also be built using a grant awarded to FOCUS Broadband in 2022. Several phases have been issued permits and we hope to begin construction soon. These phases will be built in conjunction with existing phases on the larger USDA ReConnect grant. For more information, please see the map below.
Construction is underway on our new local office in Burgaw across from Four County EMC. We anticipate the opening of this location in the early fall.
MAP LEGEND
Service Available
Preorder Available
Under Construction
Area Coming Soon
Community Connect Grant - Awarded (Coming 2023-2024)
GREAT Grant - Awarded (Coming 2023-2024)
Reconnect Grant
Pending GREAT/CABs Grant
Enter your address below for service availability.
The map shown is for illustrative purposes. All FOCUS Broadband services may not be available at all addresses. Actual availability of services is not guaranteed and must be verified before an order may be placed. Availability of services at specific addresses may be impacted by a multitude of factors including our ability to obtain permission to construct on private property. Addresses which require construction of network facilities over 1,000 feet may necessitate the customer pay aid in construction charges.