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Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
The bills would force Oconee County to follow guidelines as a broadband service provider that would likely cripple the county’s current three-year project to construct 245 miles of broadband cable, county administrator Scott Moulder said. ... Oconee County’s goal is to be a so-called “middle mile” provider, Moulder said, essentially providing a network that would allow private broadband providers to extend their service into areas they aren’t serving. In most cases, those are areas where the private providers have found it is not financially feasible to install their own infrastructure. AT&T, Moulder said, has been asked to be a partner in the project as a retailer, but the company’s current actions are a rebuff.The Oconee project is meant to attract additional independent service providers to invest in projects, not the County itself. But that hardly matters to AT&T, which wants to preserve the present lack of competition in order to maximize their gains at the public expense. The Bill, S 483 is viewable here and contains the same old tired arguments claiming the public sector has all the advantages. In reality, incumbents have the advantages -- and super-massive companies like AT&T simply do not need special help from South Carolina's Legislature (something we cover in great detail in Breaking the Broadband Monopoly.