In Edgecombe County, students live in a "digital darkness"
In Edgecombe County, 1,000 out of 6,000 students don’t have access to high-speed internet service.
Longtime county manager Eric Evans refers to it as a “digital darkness.”
He said, "We're not just being left behind everyday by steps. We're being left behind by leaps and bounds."
Linda Robinson's 10-year-old granddaughter didn't mind not having Internet before the pandemic because she was so active.
They use a dial-up modem connected to their phones. Besides that, they have no Internet service in the Whitakers community.
"Last night, she had to spell a word," Robinson said. "She had to look in the dictionary. She could have typed it on the computer."
The county has partnered with a Wilmington-based Internet service provider CloudWyze to expand access.
However, Evans said that existing service providers can protest and say that they already serve the area — even if their service doesn't reach everyone there.
"They can serve just one household within a census block, and claim that census block to be served," he said.
This problem is putting off CloudWyze from using around $1.2 million in grant money on the project.
On Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper and the North Carolina legislature reached a deal to give $30 million unused CARES act funding to rural broadband access. Edgecombe County will not receive any of that funding.
"Some of the other students have more of an advantage than she does, because we don't have that service," Robinson said.
