Anderson County officials have announced Upcountry Fiber as the company that will bring high-speed fiber internet service to areas of the county that presently have little or no access to broadband.
Although the need for broadband service has been apparent, the coronavirus pandemic exposed critical needs for e-learning, virtual medical care, and access to services via an internet connection that left some of Anderson County’s citizens without access to essential services through existing service providers.
“Having access to high-speed internet used to be a convenience, but now it’s something critical for every household and business to have,” Anderson County Council Vice Chair Brett Sanders said during a Friday press conference at Anderson Civic Center. “Our council recognizes that reliable high-speed internet is especially critical in the educational development of our youth and children.”
Local and state officials attending Friday’s gathering called high-speed fiber internet service an essential utility that is no less important than water and power for residents, businesses and economic development.
“When I think of broadband access for Anderson County, I always think of two Anderson counties,” said S.C. Sen. Mike Gambrell, who represents portions of Anderson, Abbeville and Greenwood counties. “There’s a digital divide in Anderson County, like in most counties. The area that I represent is very rural and I don’t have internet. Folks in Columbia take for granted that every county and every city has broadband.”
The first Anderson County project to be undertaken by Upcountry Fiber, a two-year-old partnership between Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative and West Carolina Rural Telephone Cooperative, will be in the Pendleton/LaFrance area, according to Jim Lovinggood, president and CEO of Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative.
Two additional projects this year will be in the Piercetown area beginning in late spring/early summer, followed by one in the Townville area in late summer/early fall, Lovinggood said. The three projects represent about 300 miles of fiber that will serve 6,000 to 7,000 locations at a total investment of about $15 million, he said.
Jeff Wilson, CEO of West Carolina Telephone Cooperative, added that partnerships are the key to bringing fiber high-speed internet to unserved and underserved portions of the county.
“We’ve been able to bring fiber to a large part of lower Anderson County – Anderson School District 3 – and parts of Abbeville County, but it takes collaboration and cooperation and with the help of the state and any funding we can get from the federal level, we can really move this project along very fast.”
In total, Upcountry Fiber hopes to complete projects throughout the county that stretch more than 2,800 miles of fiber for a total investment of $175 million.
Anderson County Administrator Rusty Burns called the Upcountry Fiber announcement an important step for future economic development throughout the county.
“This is a great day for Anderson County and it’s going to keep us moving forward,” Burns said. “This is very important to economic development because nobody is going to locate a company where they don’t have broadband available. Our county council’s outlook is not just along Interstate 85. It’s to spread economic prosperity throughout the county and this will enable us to open up some areas that we haven’t been able to fully develop like we would like to.”
