The gigabit speed promises to be "100 times faster" than the service available now, and local leaders are lauding the Lowcountry Broadband Plan as a potential economic development tool likely to attract tech and startup businesses to the area.
"This endeavor will take some time to accomplish, but once completed, it will future-proof our island," Hilton Head Island Mayor David Bennett said.
Bennett joined Beaufort County Councilman Tabor Vaux, Hilton Head Information Technology Taskforce Chairman Jim Collett, Hargray Vice President of Operations Chris McCorkendale and Hargray CEO Michael Gottdenker at Monday morning's announcement.
Hilton Head, Bluffton and county governments have endorsed the plan, as have the Hilton Head Island Economic Development Corporation and the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce.
"Super-fast Internet is not a nice thing to have anymore," Vaux said. "It's a must-have, especially as our economy continues to compete on the national level."
However, details were scarce Monday about the how the plan will be implemented, who might get the speeds first and what the new service would eventually cost customers who sign up.
The first projects to begin improving Hargray's local infrastructure should begin before the end of the year, Gottdenker said.
The company is negotiating with gated communities on Hilton Head to gauge where demand for the new service is highest and where it will extend island fiber-optic networks first, he said. Gottdenker declined to name those communities.
Hargray led a similar pilot program on Dataw Island through which about 500 of the 900 homes in the community opted into the service, he said. Those homes now have Internet speeds at 100 megabits per second, but the fiber optics installed will be able to support the eventual 1 gigabit per second service, he added.
Hargray also is looking to upgrade the electronics in the Bluffton area, which already has more fiber-optic availability, he added.
"What we've announced today is the framework," Gottdenker said. "The cost is staggering. It's in the tens of millions of dollars, and that's why it's going to take years."
Prices won't be going up anytime soon to pay for the improvements, and the company will not ask local governments to help support the upgrades financially, he said. The only public support the company expects will be help permitting the projects, gaining rights of way and eventual access to some existing government infrastructure, he added.
For Collett, who leads the island's information technology committee, the plan is a long-term investment that will put the county ahead of its competitors.
"This is going to speak so well for the future of Beaufort County," Collett said Monday. "In the next couple of years, you're going to see winners and losers picked for the next 10 to 20 years with economic development.
"I'm really pleased we're aligning ourselves with the winners."
©2015 The Island Packet (Hilton Head, S.C.), Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
