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Tag: broadband

  • State awards $30 million for internet

    More Than 1,000 Fairfield Homes to Receive Internet in Next 18 Months

    WINNSBORO – Act 175 aimed to plug Internet coverage gaps in South Carolina’s rural areas, including Fairfield County.

    While full coverage remains elusive a year later, the state has taken strides toward expanding and enhancing service, according to state officials.

    On Monday night, representatives from the state’s Office of Regulatory Staff outlined ways the agency has worked to improve online access, as well as other forms of communication.

    Internet Progress

    “There’s a lot of work that’s going to be happening in Fairfield County over the next 18 months,” said Jim Stritzinger, director of the state Office of Regulatory Staff’s broadband office” We hope your residents will be happy with that.”

    Gov. Henry McMaster signed Act 175 into law in October 2020. Part of the act included funding to provide grants to applicants to help subsidize qualifying broadband projects.

    But the law also has limitations. It merely says that the state or electric cooperative may take steps to enhance broadband service, but doesn’t mandate it.

    “This act does not convey or confer any implied or express grant of authority to an investor-owned electric utility to provide broadband facilities or broadband services,” the act states.

    In spite of the disclaimer, progress has been made.

    Stritzinger said about 3,000 people and a little more than 2,000 homes currently lack broadband service in Fairfield County.

    By October 2022, he anticipates those figures will fall to about 1,600 residents and 864 homes, largely due to $30 million in grants awarded in July.

    The ORS initiative operates in tandem with the S.C. Department in grants awarded in July.

    The ORS initiative operates in tandem with the S.C. Department of Commerce. While expanding broadband to ordinary residents is the primary goal, economic development is another incentive.

    “As a council member, you would want to target those areas to make sure you get them connected as rapidly as possible,” Stritzinger said.

    Federal grants will further close the internet connectivity gap.

    $3M USDA Grant

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently awarded $3 million to Fairfield County to enhance broadband service, which is in addition to the state investment.

    “We’re nowhere close to done in Fairfield County,” Stritzinger said. “The mission is … for all your residents to have service. We’re off to a really good start.”

    ORS representatives also talked about the agency’s equipment distribution program. The program provides no cost phone services for South Carolina residents facing speech or hearing challenges.

    With COVID-19 limiting human interaction, the program’s benefits become quite clear, said Casi Sims, a program coordinator with ORS.

    “During the pandemic, communication is very important, especially over the phone,” Sims said. “People are shut in their homes and it affects their quality of life.”

    Options include phones that amplify audio, phones with captioning (which converts audio to text), or an iPad.

    Sims said the devices are valuable educational tools, noting school speech pathologists utilize the devices.

    “The good thing about getting an iPad from our program is the student doesn’t have to turn it in at the end of the school year,” she said. “They can keep it and are progressing; they are not regressing over the summer.”

    Settling Hospital Debt

    In other business, after a lengthy executive session, the council voted to accept an offer from Fairfield Memorial Hospital to settle debts with the county. Of the $1.256 million the hospital owes the county, the board offered to pay the county $628,000.

    Council members voted 5-1 to approve, with Councilman Neil Robinson opposing. Councilman Mikel Trapp was absent.

    As early as April, some council members had hoped to strike a deal with the hospital board to settle debts for as much as $750,000.

    Before the vote, Council Chairman Moses Bell asked how much patient debt it forgave.

    Tim Mitchell, chief financial officer with the hospital, told council members that when the hospital was operating, it “wrote off $7 million dollars a year in patient debt.”

    Council Likely Violated FOIA

    The council also added a previously unpublished executive session item to the agenda for the purpose of receiving legal advice in the county’s ongoing lawsuit against Alliance Consulting Engineers, Wiley Easton Construction Company, and Employers Mutual Casualty Company.

    Filed in February 2020, the suit relates to work performed at the Fairfield Commerce Center.

    County attorney Charles Boykin asked to add the discussion item after saying he received new information about the case earlier in the day at 3:15 p.m.

    Jay Bender, an attorney with the S.C. Press Association, of which The Voice is a member, said the executive session likely violated the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

    Bender said last minute agenda additions, including executive session items, are impermissible unless the council first votes to amend the agenda to include the agenda item by a supermajority vote which, on the seven-member Fairfield council, would be five votes.

    Only after that’s done can public bodies then vote to enter executive session to discuss the item that’s added, Bender said.

    No action was taken on the lawsuit discussion.

  • Emergency broadband now available in Fairfield

    A temporary FCC Emergency Broadband Benefit program is now available to Fairfield County households who are struggling to afford internet service during the pandemic. The FCC has announced that Enrollment applications became available to consumers on May 12, 2021.

    The benefit provides:

    • Up to $50/month discount for broadband services;
    • Up to $75/month discount for households on qualifying Tribal lands; and
    • A one-time discount of up to $100 for a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet purchased through a participating provider.

    A household is eligible I even one member of the household…

    • has an income that is at or below 135 percent of the federal poverty guidelines or participates in certain government assistance programs.
    • receives benefits under the free and reduced-price school lunch or breakfast program,
    • received a federal pell grant during the current award year,
    • experienced a substantial loss of income due to job loss or furlough since Feb. 29, 2020 or
    • meets the eligibility criteria for a participating provider’s existing low-income or COVID-19 program.

    Here’s how to apply:

    1. Contact your preferred participating provider directly to learn about their application process.
    2. Go to GetEmergencyBroaband.org to submit an application and to find participating providers near you.
    3. Complete a mail-in application and send it along with proof of eligibility to: Emergency BroadBand Support Center, P. O. Box 7081, London, KY 40742.

    To learn more, call 833-511-0311 or go to fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit.

  • Fairfield seeks broadband expansion

    FAIRFIELD COUNTY – With the announcement of $3.3 million in approved grant funding, Fairfield County is a step closer to its plan to extend broadband Internet service to rural residents.

    The funding approval announced Aug. 26 by the South Carolina Broadband Infrastructure Program will help local communications provider TruVista extend access to households in the county that don’t currently have broadband. And because the money comes from the Coronavirus Relief Fund, it must be spent by the end of the year.

    “They’re going to be connecting homes between now and Christmas,” said Jim Stritzinger, whose Columbia-based consulting company has been working with local leaders on their broadband efforts.

    The $3.3 million for Fairfield is part of $26.7 million approved for broadband expansion statewide. In TruVista’s service area, it also includes $1.4 million for neighboring Chester County and is targeted for communities impacted by COVID-19.

    It’s a helpful step in the effort as officials await word on a much larger grant that TruVista applied for (with the enthusiastic support of Fairfield County leaders) earlier this year through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which if approved would put more than $20 million toward new broadband infrastructure in the county over the next five years.

    County officials began looking at the issue in earnest two years ago and were awarded a small grant for training to help them access broadband funding. But this year, during the pandemic, the disparity between areas that have broadband access and areas that don’t has taken center stage.

    In the time of social distancing, those who lack broadband access – an estimated 193,000 people across the state – have faced difficulties in three areas needed to carry on life and the economy: education (online schooling), telehealth (online doctor visits), and telecommuting (online work).

    “Households are becoming increasingly reliant on fast, reliable, and always-on internet connection for learning, work or to seek medical care and advice,” said Carla French, President and COO of TruVista, in an emailed statement.

    “Between our partnership with the state of South Carolina and the potential of further USDA ReConnect grant money, we look forward to bringing broadband services to underserved areas in Fairfield and Chester counties.”

    In addition to the planned expansion of infrastructure, TruVista has also been working with school districts to provide broadband connections to households with school-age children, according to the company.

    The immediate concern with education is that, without a reliable connection to participate in online classes, rural students could quickly fall behind.

    Broadband has become so essential in today’s world, Stritzinger compares it to electricity. The effort to expand rural broadband access he compares to the rural electrification effort of the 1930s, which likewise subsidized infrastructure with public funds to connect less populated areas.

    The programs work, he said, by offsetting the higher cost of rural infrastructure enough for the remaining private investment to make sense within the broadband provider’s normal business calculations, making a company’s return on investment similar to that of building infrastructure in more densely populated places.

    Beyond immediate needs, Fairfield County Economic Development Director Ty Davenport said broadband infrastructure will have a major impact on the county’s development future. And it’s critical for any rural community that seeks to be competitive in today’s economy.

    “Internet service is foundational, just like water and sewer. If it’s not there, industry, business – whether it’s commercial or manufacturing – probably isn’t going to come,” Davenport said.

    “[In addition to that], more and more you’re going to see people working away from the office or the plant or whatever their normal workplace is, and they’ve got to be connected. And if they can’t be connected, they’re not going to build or buy a home in a rural part of Fairfield County or any county.”

    Stritzinger said the two grants together – the $3.3 million that was just approved and the larger grant applied for with USDA – will have a major impact on extending broadband access to Fairfield County’s rural communities in need.

    “If the USDA grant comes through as well, the combination of the two of them will help solve Fairfield County’s internet vacuum, or most of it, which is extraordinary,” he said. “It’ll make a major impact – a life-changing impact on Fairfield County. No doubt about it.”