The California Public Utilities Commission Awards Second Round of Grants to Local Governments To Help Close the Digital Divide

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has made its largest award of state broadband funds to local governments to date by providing $14 million in broadband technical assistance grants to 28 local governments to support efforts to close the digital divide. These are in addition to grants given earlier in October 2022. There were 7 cities and 21 different counties that received Local Agency Technical Assistance grants from the CPUC as part of a larger effort by the Golden State Connect Authority to build and operate open-access fiber-to-the-home networks in California’s rural counties. The Golden State Connect Authority is a joint powers authority created by the 38-county Rural County Representatives of California for the purpose of increasing access to reliable, affordable high-speed Internet for the residents and businesses of those counties. Each approximately $500,000 grant will be used to reimburse local governments for the costs of network design services for unserved areas in the applicants’ jurisdictions. In a second phase, the applicants will engineer projects that will provide service to households and businesses that, upon completion, will reliably meet or exceed 100 Mbps speed, both uploading and downloading. These projects are planned to be completed within a 24-month timeline.