New map shows where highspeed internet is and isn’t available

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The state of South Carolina is making it easier for the public to see where highspeed broadband internet is – and isn’t – available.

Officials say the South Carolina Broadband Map shows the availability of broadband service to every home and business in the state.

The idea is to have a map of South Carolina where you can see all of the structures that are capable of having broadband brought to them. Officials with the Office of Regulatory Staff took that and then combined it with the data provided by the broadband providers that show where they actually are.

“So, then you can see, ‘okay, well this is where we have left to go,’” ORS’s Executive Director Nanette Edwards says. “That helps leadership in the state recognize, ‘Okay, well how much more will that cost because, of course cost is a major issue in terms of the further out you are the more costly it is to lay that fiber.”

Edwards explains the goal of the map is to identify and prioritize communities in the state where limited access to broadband has impeded the delivery of distance learning, telework and tele-health.

This project costs about $300,000 and Edwards says it was funded by a portion of the Coronavirus Relief Fund.

This map comes as broadband companies have been working to install fiber to give more South Carolinians highspeed internet access.

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