Jennifer Burdette shares dial-up internet access with her two children, who are currently in first and fifth grade in Anderson County schools.
This makes their e-learning and work-from-home days less than ideal.
“We have even tried a mobile hotspot,” Burdette said. “The performance was poor.”
As the current digital integration specialist in District Five, she experiences delays, buffering and failures while working on the home network at the same time as her children.
Anderson County is set to spend $175 million, through state and federal funds, on upgraded fiber internet access across all districts this year.
Broadband infrastructure increasing around Anderson may help many people, but many remote areas will still struggle with internet service issues.
Utility provider Upcountry Fiber has began to build out 3,000 miles of high speed internet to rural areas within the county.
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Fiber internet sends light to transmit data over a thin glass cable. There is no use of electrical or magnetic equipment with fiber, as opposed to cable or DSL, making the connection faster and more stable.
Funding is projected to come, but even with these additions, it won’t reach Burdette’s area near Iva.
“I feel and understand for those who don’t have access. It’s unfortunate,” Burdette said. “It’s one of those things you’ve got to have.”
Burdette, who lives on Leatherdale Road, is near an ‘orange zone’, meaning her living area has underserved broadband access. There are between 25 and 199 households in her ‘orange zone.’
More:Broadband infrastructure set to spread across 300 miles of rural Anderson County this year
She has seen nearly 15 new homes built around her residence near Flatrock Road, which to her, signified the possibility of an upgraded network.
However, after signing various petitions, waiting for upgrades to the area and paying nearly $60 dollars per month, her spotty internet connection must suffice for now.
Pendleton and La France are expected to break ground on new fiber infrastructure through Upcountry Fiber within a few weeks, with Piercetown upgrades to come as early as late spring before concluding with Townville’s network enhancements in the late summer/early fall.
Students and staff need high speed internet access to complete assignments, attend meetings, function in a work-from-home setting and for online fun.
The current broadband blanket in Anderson County does not cover the county evenly.
The Belton and Honea Path areas are affected most with e-learning, said Lester McCall, assistant superintendent of District Two, which covers those areas. “Without high speed internet, you can’t do it.”
McCall has recently seen upgrades to his own home internet services in Saylors Crossroads, as his speeds were improved just under a year ago.
He was responsible for administering mobile hotspots to students who needed to quarantine during and after the pandemic, there are fewer students today using those than a year ago.
Digital issues up the road
Laura Beth Smith receives her internet by satellite feed, which works fairly well on sunny, clear-skied days.
On the not-so-bright days, rain, or high winds tend to cause a sporadic internet connection.
All of this uncertainty costs her $170 a month.
“When we moved out here, I called every company,” Smith said. “There were no other options, besides satellite.”
Laura and her husband, Alex Smith, live on a 55-acre family farm just inside of District Two. She currently serves as the director of instructional services for Anderson School District Three, and her husband is a guidance counsellor at Crescent High School.
Before signing up for satellite internet, the Smith family either used their smartphones, local coffee shops, or did all of their work at the school building.
More:Wi-Fi, the newest item to check out and take home from Anderson County Library
Even their off-the-clock options took a hit, due to lack of internet.
“Streaming and Netflix was foreign to us,” Laura Beth Smith said. “Any movies, we had to watch through Redbox.”
While the salary of two staff administrators can foot the bill, she understands that everyone in the county can’t afford the same amenity.
“I feel bad for those who may not be able to afford internet,” Laura Beth Smith said. “Especially at this price.”
No child left behind
The pandemic brought about many challenges to students and parents in Anderson county.
District Three sent laptop-like Chromebooks home with every student — but not all had access to high speed internet.
“When we had students at home trying to learn, we were prepared as a district,” said Aimee Gray, director of technology in District Three. “We want students to have equitable access across the board.”
Of the 2,500 students in Anderson District Three, only 89 were counted as having no high speed internet available at home, she said.
That’s about one in 25.
District Three Superintendent Kathy Hipp said she made changes by adding wireless access points: Two parking spots at each school for students to use after hours. The parking slots on campus had cameras installed to watch for safety.
Other districts made similar efforts.
Still, the district did not satisfy the needs for all students.
“I had a student who had to put their whole family in the car to drive to an access point,” Hipp said. “The student has three younger siblings, including a four-month-year old infant.”
According to Hipp, there are three main problems:
- There are locations in District 3 where broadband does not reach, which affects students on e-learning days and nightly homework, and also teachers.
- Hotspots are made available, but often do not have strong enough connections to support live learning.
- Cell service internet connection is patchy and very slow.
There are an estimated 1,290 K-12 students in Anderson County who do not have access to 25 megabytes per second, according to the Office of Regulatory Staff’s broadband tracker.
A speed of 25 megabytes can stream high definition videos on a few devices, play games online and run limited smart devices on the network.
Broadband infrastructure increasing around Anderson may help many people, but many remote areas will still struggle with internet service issues.
Individuals outside of the new internet infrastructure still are happy for their neighbors.
“I am encouraged,” Laura Beth Smith said. “I do believe that eventually, it will impact us. We’re in this together.”
When will everyone have internet?
Anderson County expects about $175 million in funding is needed to supply internet across all of Anderson’s 700-plus mile territory, according to Mark Williamson, chief information officer for the county.
“We will advance this initiative at the speed of funding,” Williamson said. “Internet is no less of a necessity than water or power.”
A large part of the lack of access to the web is population density.
Population density is the number of people living within a specific area.
Also, service providers often stay away from areas with less than 50 homes per mile, Williamson said.
Also, it would cost $60,000 to $65,000 per mile to install internet fiber underground, he said.
Anderson County opened an email account for people to report any inability to get access to a consistent online network.
The email is [email protected]
Within the first three weeks of opening the email account, there have been nearly 90 complaint submissions.
The most popular responses, Williamson said were:
- Not enough houses on my road, providers will not service my home
- Too expensive to provide fiber access on my road
- There is no plan for fiber development at my residence
“We all make the assumption that everyone has internet,” Williamson said. “They don’t.”
The broadband expansion will come as Anderson County receives federal, private and state funding.
South Carolina was awarded $400 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Dollars will be dispersed across the 46 counties in the state and used for water, sewer or broadband expansion.
These funds are aimed at a direct response to providing relief to American citizens as a pandemic.
“We, kind of, have COVID to thank for that,” Williamson said. “It helped to perpetuate that conversation, to get funding from the federal level down to the states.”
The complaint emails beside density maps will be be provided to state legislatures, who will then put together the guidelines on how the dollars for broadband expansion are dispersed.
Budget details will be provided early as May, and no later than June, according to Nanette Edwards of the Office of Regulatory Staff. Anderson County would not begin to see these funds until 2023.
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