‘A tale of two counties,’ Lower Richland will receive broadband in the next year

Broadband internet soon will cover all of the Lower Richland area, thanks to a deal between TruVista Telecom and the county.

The service will bring internet reliability and affordability to rural Richland County for residents like Butler, who said previous options were expensive and non reliable.

“If you wanted to get it (internet), you could get it but you’d have to pay maybe three times as much as someone who lives in the city and the service wasn’t worth having,” said James Butler, a Gadsden resident of 35 years.

The $8 million private investment by Chester-based TruVista, who could not be reached for comment, has been three and a half years in the making by Richland County Council. Councilwoman Dalhi Myers, who represents District 10 covering Hopkins, Eastover, Gadsden and more of Lower Richand, announced the broadband rollout on Oct. 3 in a TeleTown Hall virtual town hall meeting.

“Richland County is really a tale of two counties,” said Jim Stritzinger, president and CEO of Revolution D Inc. and a broadband expert. “Within 15 miles of the State House, we have friends and family with no internet.”

In addition to bringing reliable internet to the area, TruVista’s fiber wire broadband will improve cellular service and make education, health care and economic development more attainable for Lower Richland, according to Stritzinger.

The broadband infrastructure will be installed in conjunction with a $27.5 million water and sewer project in the area and will be completely installed in the next year.

“I knew that while the ground was open (for the water and sewer pipes), it was smart to get everything in the ground that you needed,” said Myers. “It’s a $2 million undertaking just to dig up the road.”

The water and sewer project covers a 33-mile stretch of Lower Richland, and the broadband will extend another 20 to 25 miles to cover all of Lower Richland, Myers said. The county spent $85,000 in general funds for the first two miles of broadband before contracting with TruVista.

TruVista is installing its broadband at no cost to the county in hopes of paying for the investment through customers buying the high-speed internet service. The company has already started installing the broadband cables in Lower Richland, according to Myers. The South Carolina telecom company is 123 years old and focuses on serving rural areas.

“The community so desperately needs this so that kids aren’t sitting in their cars with hotspots or sitting in library yards — that they’re actually in their homes on the same type of high-speed internet that people have in downtown Columbia or in the northeast,” Myers said.

The Richland water and sewer project will fix sewer problems that have created wastewater ponds at Gadsden Elementary School, Hopkins Elementary School, Hopkins Middle School and Franklin Park. Myers said she hopes the project will be completed by the time kids return to school next fall.

The county is paying for the new sewer and water system through revenue bonds in order to only charge those using the service, so there will be no tax increase for residents.

Additionally, four sewer lift stations will be placed on public lands instead of the originally proposed 28 stations on private properties.

Many Richland County residents in unincorporated areas used Columbia’s water service in the past and faced the possibility of being annexed into the city. But with new project, Richland County bought the city’s waterlines in the area and, therefore, will be able to protect unincorporated areas, according to Myers.

“That was a really, really, really big bone of contention,” Myers said about some citizens’ fears of annexation into the city of Columbia.

The first phase of the sewer project will cover Lower Richland Boulevard, Air Base Road, Congaree Road, Bluff Road, Reynolds Road, U.S. 601, Cabin Creek Road, Ault Road, Trotter Road, Congaree Church Road and Clarkson Road. County Council anticipates the second phase will start in 2024.

“Lower Richland has been underserved for quite sometime, so this a quantum leap,” Stritzinger said.