Calif. Senate Appropriators Stall on Dig-Once Bill
The California Senate Appropriations Committee delayed a decision on a dig-once broadband conduit bill. At a Monday hearing, the committee moved AB-1549 into its “suspense file,” a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly, for a vote expected later…
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in the month. The bill, which already passed the Assembly, would require the state’s Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to notify broadband companies about highway construction projects so they can install broadband conduit as part of each project. If no broadband company wants to help, the department would be required to install fiber broadband conduit itself. Sponsor Assemblymember Jim Wood (D) said Caltrans failed to follow a 2006 executive order by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). Caltrans notifies large providers but not smaller broadband consortiums, Wood said. “It’s been 10 years since that executive order and nothing has really happened and most of my district does not have access to high speed Internet.” A state finance department official opposed the bill at the hearing.