AT&T and Comcast are among the top six winners of broadband funding from the state of South Carolina announced yesterday. Thirteen other companies also won funding. In total $132.8 million was awarded.
The funding will cover 52% of construction costs, with additional funding coming from other federal or private investment for total project costs of $256.7 million.
The percentage of total funding requirements not covered by the new grants is quite high. U.S. Treasury rules for awards made using funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) state and local program only require 25% of project costs to come from other sources.
The Awardees
AT&T was awarded $13.3 million in South Carolina broadband funding yesterday and Comcast was awarded $19 million.
The top six winners were each awarded $12 million or more.
The biggest winner was West Carolina Rural Telephone Cooperative, which was awarded $27.3 million. Also in the top six were Palmetto Rural Telephone Cooperative, TruVista Communications and Farmers Telephone Cooperative.
Companies that won smaller amounts of funding include Brightspeed, which was awarded $939,774 and Charter, which was awarded $4.1 million.
The awards were made by the South Carolina Broadband Office (SCBBO) through its American Rescue Plan Act, State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Priority 1.0 grant program.
According to a SCBBO press release, the awarded funding will make broadband available to 39,606 locations in the state.
Awardees have until December 31, 2024 to complete projects.
A complete list of awardees receiving South Carolina broadband funding yesterday is available at this link.
Updated to state that the state funding will cover 52% of construction costs
