South Carolina

The South Carolina Broadband Office (SCBBO) is pleased to announce 17 newly funded projects through its American Rescue Plan Act’s Capital Projects Fund (CPF 1.0) grant program. For this round of investments, the SCBBO committed $112,303,273 to eight Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that will connect over 16,000 locations statewide. The total investment for this round of broadband expansion, which includes ISP contribution, is estimated to be $162,141,901.

Lumos announced its expansion into Greenville County (SC) with nearly a $100 million investment to build out over 775 miles of its 100% fiber network throughout the county.  As a result of this expansion, Lumos will be the first fiber provider to families, households, and businesses throughout portions of the Greenville market, establishing underserved areas of South Carolina for economic success in the future. The expansion will bring fiber-optic internet to thousands of residents and businesses in the greater Greenville area.

One year has passed since Brightspeed became the fifth largest incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) in the US, and it’s made some notable progress in its $2 billion multi-year fiber deployment. Most of Brightspeed’s footprint is currently served with copper, but the operator is undertaking fiber builds in 17 states and officially launched fiber service on March 1, 2023.

Lumos, formerly known as NorthState, is establishing a fiber-optic network in the cities of Columbia, West Columbia and Irmo (SC) as part of an overall expansion into the state. Lumos initially announced its South Carolina plans with a $100 million investment in Richland and Lexington counties to build more than 1,200 miles of fiber-optic technology. 

South Carolina is excited to utilize the approximately $551 million of its allocated Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding to take the next steps to improve access to high-speed broadband across the state and has articulated its vision, goals, strategies, and other relevant information in this Five-Year Action Plan to describe both what the State of South Carolina intends to accomplish and how it intends to do so.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) made $714 million in grants and loans to connect thousands of rural residents, farmers and business owners in 19 states to reliable, affordable high-speed internet.