Senate Panel Moves Wireless Broadband Options Forward

Proposes Commission to Maximize State Asset and Protect Tax-payer Interests

Columbia, SC- A Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, chaired by Senator Luke Rankin (R-Horry), today gave key approval to the creation of the South Carolina Educational Broadband Service Commission. The commission would be charged with obtaining and evaluating proposals from private broadband providers seeking to lease ETV’s educational television channels.

Beginning in 2009, S.C. Educational Television will begin a process opening up much of its licensed spectrum for other uses, including wireless broadband Internet availability. Today’s action by the subcommittee is the first step in making sure that the assets’ potential financial benefit to the state are overseen and managed properly.

“It is imperative that we as a state maximize the value of the excess spectrum that will soon become available for expanding broadband access and pursue the most viable technology and partnership available to deliver that access,” says Senator Rankin. “The commission will be a key element in making sure that we do not lose the opportunity that is before us.”

The seven-member commission will review: various options available, the cost and benefit of those options, and recommend to the Budget and Control Board the proposals that result in the maximum benefit to the citizens of South Carolina.

“The Educational Broadband Service Commission will help us move forward in maximizing the potential of this valuable state asset and insure that the proposals presented by private broadband providers to lease the excess-spectrum capacity are beneficial to the people of South Carolina,” says Senator Rankin.

Members of the Senate subcommittee also heard from Connected Nation, a nonprofit group working to expand broadband accessibility, that 94% of South Carolinians currently have access to broadband through the current infrastructure. Connected Nation Director of State and Local Initiatives, Brent Legg, says currently the national average of statewide broadband access is in the high 80 percent region, putting South Carolina ahead of much of the country.

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