Hargray Announces First Lowcountry Broadband Plan FTTH Community

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC — Following up on its pledge to construct Fiber-to-the-Home networks as part of the Lowcountry Broadband Plan, Hargray, a provider of Internet, television, and communications services in South Carolina and Georgia, announced that its first residential fiber overbuild will be in Hilton Head Plantation. Construction is slated to begin January 15, 2016 and is expected to be completed by the spring of 2016.

Since the June 2015 joint announcement of The Lowcountry Broadband Plan with community leaders from the Towns of Hilton Head Island and Bluffton, Beaufort County, the Hilton Head Island Information Technology Task Force, and the Hilton Head Island/Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, Hargray has been working with several communities to gauge their interest in this future-proofed technology. Hilton Head Plantation acted quickly to seek resident commitments and this week met the threshold agreed upon with Hargray. These improvements are expected to bolster home values and increase Internet speeds to 100 times faster than the national average.

“This state-of-the-art fiber infrastructure will run throughout our community delivering superior internet speeds inside our residents’ homes. This will make Hilton Head Plantation one of the most technologically advanced communities in the country. Hargray has mustered all of their resources to bring this cutting edge infrastructure to our community, and we are proud to be the first community launched as part of the Lowcountry Broadband Plan,” said Peter Kristian, general manager of Hilton Head Plantation.

Gerrit Albert, vice president of sales and marketing for Hargray Communications, added, “We are thrilled to bring advanced High Speed Internet services to Hilton Head Plantation, while also building a telecommunications network infrastructure that is capable of rapidly responding to the ever-increasing demands and advancements in technology.”

The Lowcountry Broadband Plan is a framework to deliver Gigabit Internet speeds, and has three objectives:

1. Provide Gigabit Internet services to residential communities where there is demonstrated demand


2. Deliver Gigabit services to interested businesses


3. Provide Gigabit WiFi in public areas, including select beaches

Discussions between Hargray and several communities on Hilton Head Island are ongoing, and Hargray expects that construction will commence in the next community before the end of the year.