“Broadbandcrats” Push WiMax Deal for South Carolina

Last year, Palmetto State Lawmakers passed a bill creating the awkwardly named “South Carolina Educational Broadband Service Commission” (or “SCEBSC” to its close friends).

The seven political appointees who comprise this commission were told to structure an auction and review lease proposals for unused Education Broadband Service (EBS) broadcast licenses currently held by South Carolina’s state-run media conglomerate, ETV.

Any of this sounding familiar?

These are the very licenses that a fiefdom-building former head of SC ETV tried to convert into some quick cash … on the sly of course.

They also form the basis of yet another private sector trampling in South Carolina, where a cadre of “Republican” lawmakers want to put government in charge of picking winners and losers in the marketplace.

Anyway, today the commission announced completion of the auction and the selection of a joint proposal from Washington State-based Clearwire and Virginia based Digital Bridge Communications (DBC) as their recommendation.

If approved, Clearwire would serve roughly 70% of the licenses and DBC the other 30%, with both companies planning to roll out a commercial WiMax service.

A marginal amount of bandwidth will be retained by the State to meet some absurd FCC requirements.

Not surprisingly, there are also some bells and whistles thrown in for South Carolina’s research Universities, but based on the budget crunch and the ongoing hydrogen fuel fiasco, these minor provisions seem unlikely to mature into the sort of massive taxpayer slush fund that “R&D” projects in South Carolina are usually created to be.

The value of the bid – $135 million over 30 years with another $7 million upfront for a 95% sublease – is more than double the $60 million or so that was quietly offered by Clearwire directly to ETV before the economic downturn.

Of course, the best news of all is what the Commission didn’t do.

It didn’t just handover the licenses to the slew of opportunist “activists,” consultants and contractors who planned on using “free” Internet to line their personal and corporate pockets. Never mind that this would have stifled competition, sent the incumbent providers fleeing, and virtually ensured that no new fiber infrastructure was ever laid in the state again.

Naturally the far-left “free wireless will save us all” lobby will squawk at the bid proposal, and try to bully the Joint Bond Review Committee and Budget and Control Panel into foregoing the plan.

Let’s hope they don’t succeed.

Based on the questionable service/ efficiency that state and local government are providing through their monopoly control of K-12 public education, the ports, roads and bridges, etc. … we’re hoping lawmakers won’t also attempt to gamble public money on socialized Internet.

Unfortunately, depending on unreleased language in the bid allowing a “buy-back,” they might still be able to use a third of the spectrum in the so-called “mid-band” of the EBS licenses to try and do just that.

We’ll have to see … in the meantime, count on FITS to keep you connected with everything that’s happening with the deal.

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