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Brightspeed seeks state grant to fund $15 million submarine fiber loop for Outer Banks redundancy
Summary
Brightspeed told Dare County commissioners closing a submarine fiber loop from Ocracoke to the mainland would prevent future wide-area outages, estimated the loop at about $15,000,000, and said the North Carolina budget now includes funds for such projects administered by NCDIT; permitting and construction could take multiple years.
Brightspeed representatives told the Dare County Board of Commissioners that a submarine fiber loop linking Ocracoke and the mainland would add the redundancy needed to avoid large, multi-day outages on the Outer Banks. Steve Brewer, Brightspeed’s director of governmental affairs, said the company has lobbied for the connection and that the state budget for 2026 includes funds for projects of this type to be administered by the North Carolina Department of Information Technology (NCDIT).
Brewer said the loop would allow traffic to be rerouted immediately if transport fiber is cut and estimated the project cost at roughly $15,000,000. “It’s going to be somewhere in the $15,000,000 range,” Brewer said. He added the expense is unlikely to be recoverable through user fees, so public grant funding is the likeliest route to finance the work.
Why it matters: commissioners and residents framed the loop as a public-safety and economic priority after outages left parts of the islands isolated. Brewer said the state budget contains language to support closing the loop and that NCDIT will administer any grant program; a separate federal review (NTIA or similar) may still be required for federal funds. He cautioned that an award, engineering, permitting and construction process would follow any grant award and that, depending on permitting and other steps, the work could take multiple years to complete.
Board members asked how quickly the project could move; Brewer declined to give a firm date, calling permitting and contracting the critical path and offering a speculative window of a few years if the program is stood up and awarded. He said Brightspeed will apply through the state-run application process and work with county staff to help expedite permitting if possible.
