BalsamWest GREAT Grant for Macon County

Jeff Lee, Little T Broadband

BalsamWest Fibernet LLC applied for and received a GREAT award for Macon County. Though their application was submitted in May of 2022 at the same time as Frontier's application, the BalsamWest award was announced as part of GREAT Round 2 in July of 2023. The grant agreement was signed between BalsamWest, Macon County, and the State in September of 2023. This $992,000 grant will provide fiber service to 263 homes and businesses in the Otto and Scaly Mountain areas of Macon County. BalsamWest has 2 years to complete this build, which means they must activate service to all 263 awarded locations by September of 2025.

The County was pleased to see this grant award received, as it will leverage previous investments by the County and BalsamWest in building the south Macon fiber backbone. Though BalsamWest is already engaged in expanding fiber service to homes and businesses along the fiber route, this grant will help to accelerate that expansion effort.

BalsamWest has requested to provide a presentation to the Macon County Board of Commissioners in January 2024. We look forward to this update on their progress and to learn more about their future plans.

The PDF file available for download below provides a summary of the grant that was provided to the Board of Commissioners in July, and a map illustrating the award locations.