CPUC Commissioner Looks to Communities to Spread Broadband
Nontraditional providers are key to expanding broadband and making it affordable, said Commissioner Darcie Houck at a California Public Utilities Commission event Tuesday. At the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) virtual workshop, a municipal broadband panel urged the commission to dismiss industry naysayers.
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“With the addition of services provided by nontraditional entities, we will be in the best position to ensure we're able to provide broadband to all of California,” said Houck, lead commissioner on the CASF docket. “Community leaders are in the best position to know their own needs,” and can provide needed competition, she said. “It’s our strong hope that cities, counties, tribes, school districts and cooperatives will be empowered on behalf of their communities to enter this space or potentially partner with current service providers.”
CPUC Communications Division Director Rob Osborn asked a muni broadband panel about those who discourage local-owned networks. He said the CPUC has “gotten a lot of critiques from industry about how that’s never going to fly -- how municipal governments and municipal broadband is a waste of time because it’s just going to lose money and fail because there aren’t any good success stories, or maybe they’re too few and far between.”
Be wary of naysayers from incumbent ISPs, responded Keith Taylor, a University of California, Davis professor. They may say they can’t make a profit in certain areas, but they mean “it's not as profitable as they would like,” said Taylor: And they don’t want competition that would show how much money they’re “extracting from the public.”
Muni networks can make mistakes and later succeed, said Christopher Mitchell, Institute for Local Self-Reliance director-community broadband networks: Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (Utopia) Fiber had “a disaster of reputation 10 years ago” but got its act together in 2009 and has since been on a “hot streak.” Golden State Connect Authority announced a partnership last week with Utopia Fiber to develop and operate a California broadband network.
“Don't let politics dictate the timeline,” said Mitchell. Muni networks can run into trouble if they’re rushing to finish by an election, but also “don't study something to death," he said. “There is no point at which you can do something that has zero risk, and the prospect of doing nothing may be worse than doing something that doesn't work out and has to be adjusted." Next Century Cities Policy Counsel Ryan Johnston agreed long timelines and potential delays shouldn't dissuade a community from going forward.
The California commission is scheduled to weigh rules Thursday for a $2 billion last-mile federal funding account (FFA) required by the state’s $6 billion broadband law, said Osborn. Commissioners held that proposed decision at their April 7 meeting after state legislators raised concerns at a hearing (see 2204070028).
The CPUC is putting together application guidelines and contacting local areas on the agency's local agency technical assistance grant program, Osborn said. The commission adopted rules in February (see 2202240048). The CPUC plans to release draft rules for its $750 million broadband loan loss reserve fund in August and is targeting Q1 2023 to start awarding grants, he said. The CPUC received comments earlier this month (see 2204040044). Osborn expects a decision by June on other CASF program changes, he said. The agency posted a proposed decision last week (see 2204140056).
The CPUC postponed to May 5 a Thursday-scheduled vote on updating the California LifeLine program renewals process to comply with a 2021 law (see 2203220026), showed a CPUC hold list released Monday.