Seeking to get high-speed Internet to more Californians, Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, wants to add another $350 million to the state’s efforts to deploy broadband infrastructure to households in underserved or unserved areas.
His bill, AB 1758, would also allow the nonprofit California Telehealth Network to tap into a dedicated $10 million in broadband funding, helping the consortium advance telemedicine and telehealth in rural parts of the state.
“More people are using these resources,” Stone told Techwire in an interview Monday. “There are a lot of underserved communities that don’t have access to broadband.”
While Californians who live in populated urban areas can often access high-speed Internet connections, those who live in some rural regions of the state — with geographic challenges such as forested mountains — have little to no access, in part because there is no economic incentive for telecommunications companies to make such a huge investment in a service with such a low customer base.
Such a “digital divide” in the state is a concern to lawmakers, who say all Californians should have access to advanced communication networks that support emergency services, education and local businesses.
Stone said he hopes his bill will connect businesses in the rural areas, opening up the way for rural households to tap into high-speed Internet networks.
“We can’t do it if we don’t have the infrastructure,” Stone said. “It’s just like the road system.”
If Stone’s bill is approved by lawmakers, it would not be the first expansion of California’s broadband fund. As recently as 2014, Gov. Jerry Brown signed bills that opened up state broadband grants and loans to non-telephone corporations and set aside $25 million to deploy broadband infrastructure to public housing communities.
Stone’s bill would also boost funding to public housing, helping to incentivize the use of high speed Internet in low-income urban areas that have been bypassed by communications companies in the past.
The possible expansion of taxpayer funds to support telemedicine was noted with interest at a California Broadband Council meeting earlier this month. Council member Sunne Wright McPeak, who heads the nonprofit California Emerging Technology Fund, praised the “good investment” that has happened with state broadband funds at California’s libraries and emphasized the benefit of making funds available to nonprofits.
The Legislature created the California Advanced Services Fund fund in 2008, authorizing a small fee on phone bills to collect up to $315 million for the broadband development. An estimated 51 projects reaching 296,409 households in 36 counties have been funded so far with $99.3 million, according to the PUC. Another $1.7 million has been allocated to 69 public housing projects in the Central Valley, Central Coast, Bay Area and Southern California. And 16 consortia groups created to advance broadband have been given $9.2 million.
Current law authorized the funding until Dec. 31, 2015, and it is now oversubscribed, Stone said. His bill would extend the program for another seven years to Dec. 31, 2023, with the projects that connect unserved communities remaining the priority. His bill would also set a 90 percent statewide adoption rate for high-speed Internet use.
