Skip to Main Content

The South Carolina Information Network (SCINET)


SCINET LogoDATA SERVICES
The State Network, known as SCINET, is made up of approximately 4,000 circuits which include frame relay, ATM, Point to Point, multipoint and DSL lines.  These circuits provide data services to state agencies, K-12 schools and libraries, higher education institutions and a small number of county and local governments.  They share a common backbone that allows the transfer of data to any other circuit on the State Network.  The goal of the Division of State Information Technology is to ensure that the backbone network is correctly engineered to provide the proper capacity for its users and to ensure that the Network Services State Contract provides competitive rates and reliable service.

The State Network can be divided into two components from the perspective of management and ownership.  The vast majority of the network is owned and managed by private sector telecommunications carriers that are operating under a State Term Contract to provide network services to the State.  The current carriers are Spirit or SC Net (representing the independent telephone companies) and AT&T.  This portion of the network provides statewide connectivity to the many sites where state entities are located around the State.

The core of the network is owned and managed by the Division of the State Chief Information Officer.  This State-owned part of this network is known as the MetroNet.  The MetroNet primarily serves state agency headquarters locations in the Columbia area and is designed to provide cost-effective and reliable access to the backbone network and to the Internet.  The MetroNet was originally built on excess fiber installed in the mid-1980’s to support the PBX switches, and has grown to include additional agency sites with DSIT-owned and leased fiber and telecommunications facilities.

These networks are inter-worked to ensure efficient data transfer between the carrier-provided network (SCINET) and the MetroNet.  The entire network is known as SCINET. 
 

VOICE SERVICES
Local telephone service is provided to the State by the local telephone companies, either under contract or under tariff.  The State has contracts with BellSouth as well as several Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) to allow agencies to have choices and to promote competition.  Service in the majority of the Independent Telephone Company areas is obtained under tariff, since no competition is available.

The State’s premise voice equipment is provided in a number of ways.  The Division of the State Chief Information Officer operates a network of PBX’s that primarily provides premise service in Columbia, Charleston, and Greenville.  Remote nodes are attached to these PBXs to extend the service to surrounding areas using fiber or telecommunications circuits.  This network of PBXs provides services to approximately 52,000 stations.  This network also provides enhanced services such as Automated Attendant, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and Call Center Applications.  Operation of this equipment is done on a cost recovery basis. In addition to agency sites in Columbia, service is provided to the Medical University, the College of Charleston and the Citadel as well as some agency sites in downtown Charleston.

Because of the concentration of customers and equipment in Columbia and Charleston, it is cost effective for the Division of State Information Technology to perform the maintenance and management of these switches.  In cases where the geographic location of a switch is outside of DSIT’s primary serving area, DSIT has elected to outsource the switch maintenance to the manufacturer.  The decision on whether or not to outsource maintenance is based on cost.  Smaller switches are installed in Orangeburg (supporting S.C. State University) and Florence.  These switches also support transport of intra-state long distance calls for agency traffic from the PBX users.

In addition to DSIT-owned equipment, some state users in outlying areas of the State, such as many Technical Colleges, two-year and four-year higher education institutions and several agencies with large sites own their own PBXs.  These user-owned switches are generally under a maintenance contract with a vendor.

The State also has contracts in place for Central Office based local service (Centrex) in a number of cities.  Centrex is much like PBX service except that it is provided from a telephone company’s central office.  Centrex service can scale to a variety of users sizes, and is often used to connect a number of sites onto a single system.  The limiting factors of Centrex are typically physical infrastructure such as cable plant, and the serving area of the telephone carrier.  Centrex typically provides a large feature set and is a relatively reliable service.  There are several large State users, such as Clemson and Greenville Technical College, as well as a number of county and local governments.

The vast majority of the remaining (several thousand) sites around the State are smaller and use key telephone systems to provide voice services to their offices.  These key systems are from a variety of manufacturers and are either maintained by a vendor or the users themselves.  Key systems typically have limited features and are only functional with a smaller number of users.