California’s Plan to Close the Digital Divide Hits Industry Roadblocks

California has $6 billion in federal COVID relief funds with which to close the digital divide, but advocates argue that telecom industry proposals could sabotage the state’s high-stakes experiment in online democracy. In Sacramento (CA), companies are jockeying to be first in line for multimillion-dollar state grants to connect the unconnected, advocates say, and pressuring lawmakers to weaken provisions that would make broadband more affordable to low-income Californians. The state plans to build its own open-source fiber optic network to connect local communities to the global internet, and it’s offering $2 billion in grants to companies and local governments to bring unconnected residents and businesses online. The big cable and telecom firms that have long fought to keep local governments and other competitors out of the broadband market didn’t publicly oppose the plan. But now, just as California has the tools to close the digital divide, open the market to competition and potentially drive down prices, the industry is advancing proposals that could water down the state’s reforms, said Paul Goodman, an attorney at the Center for Accessible Technology, a Berkeley disability rights group. “If California sets strong rules, other states will follow," said Goodman. "California sets the tone for the rest of the country.”