Calif. Proceeds on Broadband Access Laws
California agencies are advancing on broadband action items from the state’s multibillion-dollar effort to increase access, the California Broadband Council was told its final 2021 virtual meeting. The council is seeking to do more to sign up consumers for the emergency broadband benefit (EBB), said Chair Amy Tong. Much work must be done to implement recent $6 billion broadband funding and California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) revamp laws, said California Public Utilities Commission Assistant General Counsel Helen Mickiewicz on an FCBA webinar later Wednesday.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The CPUC expects to post a proposed decision by Dec. 1 on technical assistance grants to local governments, required by this year’s broadband law, said Michael Minkus, Communications Division policy adviser. A staff proposal on the law’s $750 million loan loss reserve fund for localities is targeted for Q1, he said. The CPUC will implement public housing adoption and infrastructure grant programs “in the next year,” he said. Look for a proposed decision between December and March on the $2 billion last-mile federal funding account, he said. An updated staff report in the proceeding in docket R.21-03-002 to change state USF contribution (see 2104060029) is anticipated this month, with a decision expected in Q2, Minkus said. The agency is weighing changes to California LifeLine rules in docket R.20-02-008, he said.
Proposed new guidelines for California’s Multifamily Housing Program include a minimum broadband requirement of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload, said Josh Rosa, California Housing and Community Development Department unit chief. Proposed scoring will push applicants to go “above and beyond,” with more points for those that promise 100/20 Mbps and that provide free or reduced-price service, device support or digital literacy training, said Rosa. The department will adopt final guidelines in November and release a notice of funding availability in February, he said.
The council will quickly follow up on how to improve EBB outreach, said Tong. She suggested taking a page from the COVID-19 vaccine outreach playbook and going door-to-door to spread the word. Emails and website notices aren’t enough, she said, "because they don't have access to that to begin with.” California has “a long ways to go, and that is even with California doing better than any other state" on signups at about 710,000, said California Emerging Technology Fund President Sunne Wright McPeak. “To really get our fair share out of EBB, we should be at 2 million.”
With so much money coming in for broadband, CASF will probably dwarf the LifeLine program that was historically the CPUC's biggest fund, Mickiewicz told FCBA. California extended CASF and increased its surcharge cap. The CPUC is considering switching to a flat-rate, connections-based contribution method because the amount of money the agency is collecting has decreased due to many users shifting to broadband, Mickiewicz said. Facilitating that change, the CASF revamp package removed from state law references to a revenue-based surcharge, she said. The CPUC lacks authority to assess broadband and it’s unlikely the legislature would support funding subsidy programs through general tax revenue, she said.
New state laws don’t bar overbuilding because reducing costs to consumers is a consideration, said Mickiewicz. California Cable and Telecommunications Association General Counsel Jacqueline Kinney said the state should prioritize serving the most unserved areas before overbuilding. The new laws envision an evolving definition of unserved, which is important with internet demands ever rising, said Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon.
"Legislative oversight is critical for transparency to ensure that California stays on track to spend the federal funds in time so they’re not forfeited and to make sure that all the intended outcomes are achieved,” said Kinney. Falcon agreed “there should be a lot of oversight over how the dollars are spent.” California has “no shortage of resources” to bridge the digital divide now, he said, but mistakes could still be made.