{"id":1593,"date":"2009-06-04T09:39:17","date_gmt":"2009-06-04T14:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/?p=1593"},"modified":"2009-06-05T14:09:38","modified_gmt":"2009-06-05T19:09:38","slug":"broadband-deal-getting-more-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/04\/broadband-deal-getting-more-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Broadband deal getting more study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sides debating how to allocate broadcast capacity<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By GINA SMITH<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scpronet.com\">The State<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A panel of lawmakers says it needs more time to study a proposal to bring WiMax, the latest in wireless broadband, to the Palmetto State.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday, the Joint Bond Review Committee sent to subcommittee a plan to lease ETV\u2019s excess broadcast capacity to private companies, Clearwire and Digital Bridge Communications.<\/p>\n<p>A contentious part of the proposal lets the state recapture 20 percent of the excess capacity if it\u2019s needed in the future for yet-to-be-determined law enforcement, school or governmental needs.<\/p>\n<p>Some lawmakers and residents say the state should hang on to more of the capacity.\u00a0Others think the capacity could be worth more money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt sounds to me like we may be selling ourselves a bit cheap,\u201d said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scpronet.com\">S.C. Progressive Network<\/a> said lawmakers should designate some of the capacity for free Internet for K-12 students and reduced-rate Internet for residents.<\/p>\n<p>Members of a legislatively appointed study committee say they\u2019ve negotiated the best possible deal for the state.<\/p>\n<p>The companies will pay nearly $143 million to the state over 30 years. The companies would build WiMax networks, offering S.C. residents, businesses and others wireless Internet and, eventually, other uses, like interactive tools.<\/p>\n<p>It would take 18 months to build a network, according to Clearwire.<\/p>\n<p>The debate comes at a time when Clearwire is facing legal troubles.<\/p>\n<p>Customers in four states, including North Carolina, are suing Clearwire, alleging the company is misrepresenting the reliability of its network and is unfairly charging early termination fees.<\/p>\n<p>Clearwire is upgrading its network from an early version of WiMax to mobile WiMax.<\/p>\n<p>Clearwire representatives have said South Carolina would get the mobile WiMax version.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear how soon the subcommittee will report back. The State Budget and Control Board has the final say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sides debating how to allocate broadcast capacity By GINA SMITH The State A panel of lawmakers says it needs more time to study a proposal to bring WiMax, the latest in wireless broadband, to the Palmetto State. Wednesday, the Joint &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/04\/broadband-deal-getting-more-study\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-newscommentary","category-network-newsevents","category-sc-newscommentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1593"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1602,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1593\/revisions\/1602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scpronet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}