South Carolina Code 58-9-2660. Petitions to designate unserved areas; notice; objections
(B) The commission shall maintain a list, by county, of all broadband service providers who have provided to the commission written notification that they wish to receive notice of petitions to designate unserved areas in a particular county or counties. The commission must serve electronic notice of the petition described in subsection (A) on all broadband service providers in the affected county or counties that requested notice of petitions within five working days of the petition’s filing. The commission also must post public notice of the filing of the petition on its website.
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 58-9-2660
- Broadband service: means a service that meets the definition of "broadband service" in § 58-9-10(17) and that has transmission speeds that are equal to or greater than the requirements for basic broadband tier 1 service as defined by the Federal Communications Commission for broadband data gathering and reporting. See South Carolina Code 58-9-2610
- Commission: means the South Carolina Public Service Commission. See South Carolina Code 58-9-2610
- Communications service: means a telecommunications service, a broadband service, or both. See South Carolina Code 58-9-2610
- Government-owned communications service provider: means a state or local political subdivision, instrumentality of the State, person, or entity providing a communications service to the public for hire over a facility, operation, or system that is directly or indirectly owned by, operated by, or a financial benefit obtained by or derived from, an agency, instrumentality, or entity of the State or local government. See South Carolina Code 58-9-2610
- Public: means the public generally or a limited portion of the public, including a person or corporation. See South Carolina Code 58-9-2610
- Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
- Unserved area: means :
(1) within a county that is identified as a persistent poverty county by the United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service pursuant to the most recent data from the Bureau of the Census, a nongovernment-owned communications service provider's territory within a 2010 Census tract, as designated by the United States Census Bureau, in which at least seventy-five percent of households have either no access to broadband service or access to broadband service only from a satellite provider; and
(2) within any other county, a 2010 Census block, as designated by the United States Census Bureau, in which at least ninety percent of households have either no access to broadband service or access to broadband service only from a satellite provider. See South Carolina Code 58-9-2610
(C)(1) A broadband service provider that has not notified the commission of its wish to receive notice of petitions pursuant to subsection (B) or a resident of an area designated in a petition filed pursuant to subsection (A) may, within thirty days after the commission posts public notice of the filing of the petition on its website, file with the commission an objection to this designation on the ground that one or more areas designated in the petition is not an unserved area.
(2) A provider of broadband service in the area designated in a petition filed pursuant to subsection (A) that notified the commission of its wish to receive notice of petitions may, within thirty days after service of the notice required in subsection (B), file with the commission an objection to this designation on the ground that one or more areas designated in the petition is not an unserved area.
(3) Any provider or resident filing an objection must file testimony supporting the objection within thirty days after the objection is filed. If no testimony is filed in support of the objection, the petition must be granted.
(D) If an objection is filed pursuant to subsection (C), the commission must:
(1) give the petitioner an opportunity to submit prefiled testimony responding to the objection;
(2) hold a hearing on the dispute; and
(3) rule on the petition within ninety days after the objection is filed.
(E) Upon a commission designation that an area is an unserved area, the provisions of Sections 58-9-2620, 58-9-2630, and 58-9-2650 must not apply to a broadband service provided by the petitioner in that area until the later of:
(1) sixty months after the effective date of this act if, at the time an area is designated as an unserved area, the transmission speed requirements for basic broadband tier 1 service as defined by the Federal Communications Commission for broadband gathering and reporting are the same as they were on the effective date;
(2) thirty-six months after the effective date of this act if, at the time an area is designated as an unserved area, the transmission speed requirements for basic broadband tier 1 service as defined by the Federal Communications Commission for broadband gathering and reporting are different than they were on the effective date of this act; or
(3) twelve months after the commission determines pursuant to subsection (F) that the area is no longer an unserved area.
(F) A provider of broadband service or a resident of an area designated as an unserved area may petition the commission to determine that the area is no longer an unserved area. After notice and an opportunity for a hearing, the commission must grant the petition if, considering only broadband service that is available from providers other than the government-owned communications service provider that filed the petition resulting in the designation by the commission of the area as an unserved area, the commission determines that the area no longer satisfies the relevant definition of "unserved" in § 58-9-2610(G).