Anderson County, South Carolina, broadband project follows in footsteps of rural electrification

Anderson County (SC) is not one of the most broadband-deprived areas of the state. In Anderson County’s municipal areas, internet customers are moving along at high (or at least, moderate) speed. Still, thousands of households and scores of businesses suffer the frustrations of slow internet service. The majority of the county benefits from moderate broadband speeds with pockets close to the city of Anderson and Greenville County seeing even faster access. But in Honea Path, Pendleton, Williamston and rural locations farther afield, communities packed with more than 200 households per square mile lack any broadband access, according to 2021 maps from the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff’s Broadband Office. Upcountry Fiber, a new partnership developed by the Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative and West Carolina Rural Telephone Cooperative seeks to bridge this the digital divide through one of its inaugural forays into the Upstate: a $15 million, 2,800-mile broadband expansion to Anderson enclaves with little or no access to high-speed internet. Close to 7,000 households and businesses will be put on the grid, according to the company.