Better connecting rural regions. Patrick Woodie is President and CEO of the North Carolina Rural Center. He says progress is being made, but still more needs to be done.

“Making sure every home, every business in the state of North Carolina, regardless of where it’s located, has access to high speed, affordable broadband. We’re not there yet, but we’re well on our way.”

Woodie notes about one and a half billion dollars worth of resources have been directed to expanding broadband in rural areas.

“While there’s still about 2 billion available for adding more, we’ve deployed about one and a half billion of about three and a half billion dollars of resources that have been dedicated to rural broadband.”

More of North Carolina is being suburban and urban, rural areas still play a key role, and Woodie says the economic success of those regions is tied to improved infrastructure, such as high speed broadband.

“Still got a lot of work to do in the next few years, but we can feel pretty good about our progress, and we want to see that progress really continue.”

A little over a third of the state, 36%, live in rural areas. That includes about 75 of the state’s 100 counties.