NTIA www.ntia.doc.gov recently hosted a broadband workshop in Silicon Valley with the take-away that not only California but the whole rest of the nation still face digital divide challenges. There are still tribal lands that lack basic communications infrastructure.
The workshop specifically explored broadband challenges and opportunities across California. This workshop was one of the latest held in a series of regional workshops that NTIA is holding around the country as part of the “BroadbandUSA Initiative”
The “BroadbandUSA Initiative” provides technical assistance and support to communities that seek to expand deployment and adoption of high-speed internet service. So far, several initiatives have invested about $4 billion nationwide in network infrastructure, public computer centers, computer and internet training, and broadband mapping.
The California Broadband Council http://broadbandcouncil.ca.gov works with public, private, non-profit and tribal stakeholders to drive investment in network infrastructure and get more Californians online.
Mapping data from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) www.cpuc.ca.gov shows that while 98 percent of urban households in the state have access to wired broadband speeds of at least 6 megabits per second, downstream that number drops to 43 percent for rural households. The Commission also found that the limited reliability of wireless services in many rural areas means that wireless connections rarely fill the gap.
The CPUC manages a $315 million grant and loan program called the “California Advanced Services Fund” (CASF) www.cpuc.ca.gov/casf. The funds are used to expand broadband in unserved and underserved communities including rural areas where the economics aren’t working for the private sector.
The CPUC fund is bringing broadband to places where electricity and basic phone lines are not available which includes the Karuk and Yurok lands of Northern Humboldt County. The tribes are using a $6.6 million CASF award to install more than 80 miles of fiber in a project called the “Klamath River Rural Broadband Initiative” www.yuroktribe.org .
CASF also invested in six NTIA’s “Broadband Technology Opportunities Program” (BTOP) projects, including two major networks that have brought high-speed capacity to parts of the state previously reliant on decades old telephone systems.
One project the Central Valley Next Generation Broadband Infrastructure Project (CVNGBIP) www.cvngbip.org. is a 1,200 mile fiber-optic backbone connecting 18 Central Valley counties. CVNGBIP is a collaboration between local phone companies and California’s research and education network. Another project, the Digital 395 network www.citynet.net, a 624 mile system running along the Highway 395 corridor in the Eastern Sierras was built as a public private partnership.
Santa Monica’s CIO Jory Wolf explained how Santa Monica’s 100 gigabit City Net network has saved the municipality hundreds of thousands of dollars on telecommunications, pushed down broadband rates for local homes and businesses and made the community the hub of a thriving economy.