North Carolina has again taken a leadership position in the deployment of a statewide broadband network. This network will provide the advanced communications infrastructure that will serve as the foundation for leadership into the 21st century for state and local government, and business and industrial companies throughout the state. Thorough implementation of this communications infrastructure will provide an information highway for our citizens and students as they meet the challenges and opportunities of the future.

As might be expected, because the NCIH is being deployed with developing technology (e.g., the first wide-scale implementation of Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology), the costs paid by subscribers for the service have been high initially, technical problems have exceeded an acceptable production standard, and the number of applications effectively using the large bandwidth capacity have been limited.

The initial focus of the NCIH was on video applications in order to meet the immediate schedule requirements of the new and existing distance learning initiatives. Data applications that require large bandwidth capability are now increasing in number and usage. As of May 1996, there were 125 operational sites with an additional 15 sites pending installation. Of the 125 operational sites, 80 are video-only, 4 are data-only, and 41 are using both video and data services. Even with the relatively low number of NCIH operational sites and the early emphasis on distance learning applications, the initial deployment of the NCIH achieved a fairly good distribution of both geographical coverage and functional users (see Figures 1 and 2).

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