(The Center Square) – As North Carolina state employees briefed legislators Thursday on efforts to expand broadband internet access to rural parts of the state, one lawmaker asked whether the private sector might have better solutions.
Most states received billions in federal grants during the COVID-19 pandemic for broadband expansion. Some of that funding could revert to the federal government if it is not spent by the end of the year, according to testimony before the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Information Technology.
“Do we need to rethink this whole thing?” asked Sen. Jim Burgin, R-Harnett. “I’ve been trying to get internet service in Harnett County and I don’t think it’s ever going to happen.”
The senator has met with private companies such as Amazon and Starlink and was impressed, he said.
“Amazon is rolling out this new program called Leo,” the senator said. “They’ve already got 175 satellites up. They are going to have 3,000 satellites up. It’s fascinating. I think we could save a lot of money if we could look at this.”
Teena Piccione, secretary and state chief information officer of the Department of Information Technology, agreed that Amazon’s program is impressive.
“We have been working with Amazon Web Service,” she told Burgin. “We know exactly about their program. We actually asked them to prioritize North Carolina as one of their initial sites back in November. We have been all over that.”
North Carolina was also the first state in the nation to sign a deal with Starlink, owned by SpaceX, a private company founded by Elon Musk.
“While the new technologies are coming out, we are proactively meeting with them,” Piccione said. “Can they handle the needs in a different way that we haven’t thought about for North Carolinians?”
A key question is whether satellite would be better than broadband in areas such as the mountains, Piccione said.
“Can I get to the coast and the mountains, a different technology and how can I get it faster? she said. “That’s what we are looking at.”
