SALISBURY — It’s no surprise how vital the internet is when it comes to work, school or just standard recreation. However, many people in more rural areas in Rowan County have difficulties getting on to the internet and may not be able to do basic activities.

To commemorate reaching more individuals and providing them with high-speed internet, AT&T and the Rowan Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting ceremony on June 6 to christen new AT&T Fiber accessibility to the people and businesses in Salisbury.

The ceremony took place on Cruse Road, a southern part of Salisbury that is between Faith and China Grove. Regional Director of AT&T North Carolina Kathleen Evans described the specific location as one that “represents one of the many locations in this community where AT&T Fiber is now available.” 

“Given most households these days, they use a lot of bandwidth to power their iPhones and their watches and their computers and their TVs. There’s been a tremendous increase and need for bandwidth and AT&T Fiber is one of the solutions for that issue,” Evans said.

Evans said fiber cables were buried in the ground to make all of this possible. From 2019 to 2023, AT&T has invested $3.1 billion in network infrastructure for North Carolina. All told, there is more than 4.4 million fiber optic strand miles in the state to accommodate 1.15 million customer locations.

Rowan County Commissioner Greg Edds spoke of a countywide need for more internet service for kids still in school, volunteer fire departments and businesses. To address this issue, a few years ago, Rowan County conducted a “broadband study” where both state officials and the federal government got involved. 

“This is really a result, I think, of what we’re seeing. It’s good for everybody, it’ll light up these houses with good, strong, fast internet,” Edds said.

Salisbury Mayor Karen Alexander was delighted to have AT&T as an ally in generating internet obtainability for residents. The city will be seeing a great amount of development in the coming years and adapting to that is key for creating a viable future. 

“As these neighborhoods grow and change, they will need additional services and our Hotwire doesn’t go outside of our city limits. They have it available to go out into our ETJ (extraterritorial jurisdiction), but not pass those lines. So it’s really good for our citizens to have access to such a huge company’s resources,” Alexander said.