The California Broadband Council adopted a final
Broadband Action Plan for the state. The Action Plan, which
was required by
Executive Order N-73-20, was crafted with collaboration from
a number of stakeholders and state agencies as a “roadmap to
accelerate the deployment and adoption.” The Executive Order also
requires the Broadband Council to review the plan annually.
The final plan centers on three long-term goals to ensure that
all Californians: have high-performance broadband available at
home, schools, libraries, and businesses; have access to
affordable broadband and the devices necessary to access the
internet; and can access training and support to enable digital
inclusion. Per the Executive Order’s requirements, the plan
updates the state broadband definition to meet to the federal
standard of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload, with a goal of
100/20 Mbps. CSAC participated in multiple stakeholder sessions
during the development of the plan, and will remain engaged with
the Council going forward.
The Legislature is shaping up to take action on Broadband as
well, with a number of bills on the topic already introduced.
CSAC is supporting
AB 14, by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, and SB 4, by
Senator Lena Gonzalez. Between them, these bills would authorize
implement needed reforms and additional funding, including the
authority to issue a revenue bond of up to $1 billion. These
reforms and new funding authorization are critically important to
bringing broadband infrastructure in to the 21st
Century. The bill would also give explicit authority for Boards
of Supervisors to approve the construction and operation of
broadband infrastructure and services.
CSAC is also supporting
AB 34, by Assembly Members Al Muratsuchi, Eduardo Garcia, and
Miguel Santiago, which would put a state general obligation bond
on the November 2022 ballot. The bill does not yet include
specifics about the size of the proposed bond or its uses, but
the intent is to fund increased access to broadband services to
rural, urban, suburban, and tribal unserved and underserved
communities. The
press release announcing the bill envisions a bond of up to
$10 billion.
Those bills deal with exactly the issues that CSAC’s board of
directors has made a priority for the association this year:
significant funding for infrastructure in the form of a bond and
reforms to the programs that subsidize infrastructure. Since a
general obligation bond would not provide funding until 2023 at
the earliest, it is critical for the state and federal
governments to increase resources available for building to
unserved and underserved communities.
