$121 million will help expand broadband internet access in rural SC thanks to FCC
The Federal Communications Commission is set to send $121 million over the next 10 years to internet providers in the Palmetto State to expand broadband access in rural areas in South Carolina.
The money from the Universal Service Fund will help bring broadband access to more than 108,000 unserved homes and businesses across the state.
The projects will be carried out over 10 years, when the need for broadband has become more immediate.
Expanding broadband in the state has become a priority during the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit the state in March. Students had to shift to virtual education and doctors began doing more telehealth visits in order to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“This is very good news for South Carolina,” said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-Seneca. “While it doesn’t solve the problem completely, it is another positive step in the right direction.”
About 650,000 South Carolinians and 180,000 households in the state do not have high-speed internet access.
According to one estimate, it would cost about $800 million to connect the rest of the state to broadband service.
Using federal CARES Act dollars, the Office of Regulatory Staff is administering about $52.8 million, according to latest estimates, worth of broadband expansion projects this year in a 50/50 matching program, where broadband providers pay for half the cost of the project.
As a short-term fix, the ORS provided more than 92,000 temporary internet connections, mostly through hot spots, to needy students. That service will continue through the end of the school year as ORS plans to send $8.2 million of its remaining federal COVID-19 relief money to the South Carolina Department of Education, so the department can continue providing internet access.
In a news release announcing the latest broadband projects, the FCC said almost all of the locations around the country will receive access to broadband with speeds of at least 100 mbps download speed and 20 mbps upload speed, with more than 85% getting gigabit-speed broadband.
The minimum to be considered high speed internet is 25 mbps download and 3 mbps upload, which allows a person to watch a video for a school lesson or have a telehealth appointment.
Money for the projects is coming from the Universal Service Fund, which gets money from phone companies, paging service companies, cable companies and certain Voice over Internet Protocol providers, in order to bring modern communications networks to rural areas, according to the FCC.
Federal lawmakers from South Carolina have been pushing for increased funding for broadband projects around the country.
Graham and Sen. Tim Scott, have proposed creating a governors’ broadband development fund to pay for broadband infrastructure development and help pay subsidies for people who can’t afford the service, among other uses.
U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, House majority whip, proposed earlier this year the Rural Broadband Acceleration Act, to have the FCC accelerate the 10-year process to one year.
“The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the severity and magnitude of the rural-urban digital divide. Telework, telemedicine, and distance learning are impossible in areas without broadband access. (The) bipartisan legislation will fund hundreds of rural broadband construction projects immediately,” Clyburn said when he introduced the legislation.
Who received FCC funding?
Charter Communications: $112.4 million for 98,670 locations
Horry Telephone Cooperative: $730,000 for 2,267 locations
Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Consortium: $46,000 for 34 locations
Palmetto Telephone Communications: $570,000 for 264 locations
Rural Electric Cooperative Consortium: $876,000 for 2,213 locations
Sandhill Telephone Cooperative: $6,400 for 1 location
Space Exploration Technologies Corp.: $6.2 million for 4,287 locations
WC Fiber: $98,000 for 945 locations
Windstream Services: $312,153 for 152 locations
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 9:46 AM with the headline "$121 million will help expand broadband internet access in rural SC thanks to FCC."
