Caltrans would be required to keep an inventory and centralized database of the broadband conduits it owns that are located on state highway rights-of-way, under a bill from Assemblymember Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg.
The legislation (AB 1549), called the Broadband Map Act, was amended on June 30 and would provide this information, upon request, to local governments, nonprofit organizations, and cable TV and phone companies that are working on broadband deployment.
"In the year 2016, there are still too many Californians who do not have access to high-speed Internet, especially for the rural communities in my district and many others. As chair of the Select Committee on the Digital Divide in Rural California, I convene multiple hearings during the legislative recess to discuss the gaps in broadband coverage and how that gap can be closed. AB 1549 is a direct result of those hearings," Wood told a legislative committee last month.
Besides the data component, the bill was amended to require Caltrans to notify broadband providers when they plan to open a trench that's capable of housing broadband conduit, according to Wood. If private companies aren't interested in doing the work, Caltrans would be required to install a conduit for future use.
Wood noted that laying conduit while a highway is under construction is much cheaper than going back in after the fact.
“We need better connectivity in our rural communities, bottom line,” Wood said in a statement last month. “In past decades the public sector invested heavily to deliver copper telephone lines and electricity across the country. This is a drop in the bucket compared to those investments, but it will make a world of difference for our communities in this 21st-century economy."
AB 1549 has moved to the Senate Appropriations Committee for further consideration. The bill is supported by the California Center for Rural Policy, the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) and the Rural County Representatives of California, among others.
