The South Carolina House voted 95-0 to approve H-3508 Wednesday...
The South Carolina House voted 95-0 to approve H-3508 Wednesday after the Senate passed the bill 42-2 June 7. The AT&T-backed bill has floated through the state’s legislature since early last year with little movement prior to recent amendments and…
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votes. The bill would change how South Carolina permits its communities to establish broadband, favoring industry action over municipal, and has encountered some controversy since its introduction. Several companies, including Google and Alcatel-Lucent, opposed the measure in a May letter (http://xrl.us/bndaq4). “This bill will harm your state’s economic growth and do little if anything to promote competition or to bring advanced communications services to the citizens of South Carolina,” wrote Steve Traylor, executive director of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, in a Jan. 23 letter to South Carolina officials(http://xrl.us/bndaom). “Hamstringing local government efforts to provide fiber networks will simply result in the further flow of millions of investment dollars to neighboring states such as Tennessee.” H-3508 has now received three readings in both chambers and is enrolled for ratification as of Thursday.