The project, called Digital 299 — since it will follow the namesake highway's windy road — will account for a large portion of the more than $100 million balance remaining in the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), which was authorized in 2007 to help bridge the digital divide in underserved communities.
Digital 299 will traverse about 283 miles of rugged terrain to bring middle-mile backhaul to schools, hospitals, fire stations and more than 100 anchor institutions in proximity to the route and provide last-mile connectivity to more than 300 homes, according to a CPUC resolution.
Most of the communities along the route — such as Lewiston, Weaverville and Willow Creek — are deemed underserved or partially served by CPUC's minimum definition of download speeds for what constitutes broadband (6 Mbps). The project also will add cell towers along the road to improve wireless phone service.
Inyo Networks will be the primary grantee and service provider for Digital 299. The company manages day-to-day network operations for Digital 395, a similar $109 million broadband project completed in the Eastern Sierra, from Carson City, Nev., south to Barstow, Calif.
The total cost of Digital 299 is about $69 million. The CASF grant will subsidize almost 70 percent of that. Construction and digging for the underground fiber is expected to take about two years after the permitting process is complete. Inyo will subcontract design and construction work to Praxis Optical Networks Inc. It's expected other Internet service providers, including Frontier Communications, will further develop last-mile service to hook in thousands of homes. Humboldt State University also will connect into last-mile service at Digital 299's western terminus, which is two-pronged at Arcata and Eureka.
CPUC commissioners approved the grant funding for Digital 299 by a 4-to-1 vote. President Michael Picker made the lone vote in opposition. The Redwood Coast Connect Consortium initially proposed the project. Digital 299 apparently has not been without some local controversy, as this interesting local perspective indicates.
Here's a rough map of where Digital 299 will go.
CASF was created to provide as much as $315 million to advance broadband adoption and infrastructure deployment. This January 2017 fact sheet summarizes the dozens of projects the fund has advanced in the 10 years since CASF was created.
