Building Better Broadband in South Carolina

Short Synopsis

BroadbandCensus.com has received a funding committment from Benedict College, working in collaboration with a national non-profit foundation, that will allow us to do a quick-but-intense broadband data collection effort in South Carolina. We will build an interactive map that identifies the broadband providers -- on the Census Block level -- within three counties (Fairfield, Lexington and Richland) near Columbia, S.C. 

Our project budget to complete the Broadband SPARC analysis in Columbia, S.C., is $40,000; our project budget to take the project to the entirety of South Carolina is $120,000.

Description/Treatment

Importance of Broadband Data and Broadband Mapping

Benedict College’s Broadband in Cities and Towns initiative has formed an educational coalition consisting of Benedict College, Clemson University, University of SC, Medical University of SC, other HBCUs in the state, SC Association of Community Development Corporations, and BroadbandCensus.com to write a joint proposal for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Broadband stimulus funding. This proposal seeks funding to implement a pilot broadband data mapping project. The data analysis will be used as a proof of concept for determining underserved and unserved areas in the state. The data will be shared with all coalition participants and will involve students from the participating institutions in the collection of the data. The coalition, through Benedict College, will contract with Broadband Census LLC (d/b/a BroadbandCensus.com) to oversee the collection and analysis of data.

Understanding the state of broadband – Speed, Price, Availability, Reliability and Competition  (Broadband SPARC) – and its capacity and use is vital for those public and private entities seeking to utilize federal broadband stimulus funds for high-speed internet service. Think of broadband data in two dimensions: geographic and topical.

Geographic Units include:

National, State, County, City, Census Trac, etc.

Speed, Price, Availability, Reliability, Capacity (e.g. fiber, cable, DSL)

It is essential for entities seeking to apply for broadband stimulus dollars to collect broadband data in both dimensions – geographic, as well as the Broadband SPARC. Knowing whether “broadband,” in the abstract, is available is of little use in assessing whether a geographic unit is truly served, or underserved. To get a complete picture of this information, applicants must understand the speed, price, reliability and competitive state of broadband.

A 100 Megabit per second (100 Mbps) fiber-optic connection is qualitatively different from a boosted cable modem service (around 8 Mbps), which is different from conventional DSL service (around 1.5 Mbps), which differs from mobile wireless service, of around 500-700 Kilobits per second (Kbps). Understanding the applications that broadband could and will serve must rely on an objective measure of speed, price, quality and competitive options. This project will provide a barometer of the social and economic case necessary for better broadband within the region.

What BroadbandCensus.com Will Do in Columbia, South Carolina

BroadbandCensus.com will focus its broadband data collection and display efforts on the greater Columbia, S.C., area: Fairfield, Richland and Lexington Counties.  Within these three counties, there are approximately 43 ZIP codes, 126 Census Tracts, 389 Census Block Groups, 14,814 Census Blocks, and 225,810 households. 

BroadbandCensus.com has engaged a team of geographic and telecommunications research experts building a Google Earth map of the broadband footprint of cable and DSL providers. On a preliminary basis, the team has located the cable and digital subscriber line (DSL) footprints for the counties of Fairfield, Lexington and Richland. The illustration below shows the DSL footprint, combined with cable points, for Lexington and Richland Counties. The red circles represent the polygons in which we have some degree of confidence that DSL service are offered.  The polygons representing cable service have yet to be included.

BroadbandCensus.com has taken this mapping effort a step further. We have drawn an additional buffer zone around each DSL or cable polygon. The buffer extends the outer boundary of the complex polygon. We have some degree of certainty that there is service within the boundary of polygon. We have some degree of certainty that there is NOT service outside of the outer boundary of the polygon. The next step in the effort is to provide answers about the state inside the buffer zone.

Through this process of elimination, the BroadbandCensus.com team has lowered the total number of Census Blocks for which there is some degree of uncertainty about the state of broadband from 14,814 Census Blocks in the three counties, to 952 Census Blocks in the three counties. (We have identified carriers providing service to each Census Block, although it is not depicted on this map.)

Summary:

1) BroadbandCensus.com has been working with Benedict Collect, Clemson University, and other universities, non-profit, private sector, municipal and state entities to collaboratively build upon their knowledge of local conditions at the Census Block level.

2) BroadbandCensus.com will conduct mail, internet, telephone and possibly face-to-face interactions to collect basic broadband data about Broadband SPARC data elements at the Census Block level.

3) BroadbandCensus.com will conduct an outreach campaign to ensure that we can represent carriers and technologies (cable, DSL, etc.) within each Census Block in the Columbia area.  Coverage is confirmed either because a provider is within the zone of certainty, or because of survey results from the Census Blocks where some uncertainty remains.