California wanted to bridge the digital divide but left rural areas behind. Now that's about to change

Over the last decade, California’s urban centers have become technology hubs, cities where free Wi-Fi and fiber optic lines are ubiquitous. But in low-income neighborhoods, across the state’s inland regions and in rural communities — often home to large migrant populations — families struggle to connect at all. Some elected officials see that reality as proof that a digital divide is leaving many people behind. And they’ve set out to remedy it. In 2007, the state established the California Advanced Services Fund to offer companies incentive to help bridge the gap. The program has allowed broadband providers to apply for nearly $300 million in grants to bring fiber optic, copper and other cable lines to some of the poorest and hardest-to-reach regions in the state. The goal was to connect 98% of the 12.9 million homes across California, one that as of 2016 was within a few percentage points of being fulfilled. But while nearly 12.3 million homes in urban areas had some form of wireline broadband service by that year, less than half of roughly 680,900 households in rural areas had been connected. After her election to the state Assembly in 2016, Aguiar-Curry decided to help revive the California Internet for All Now Act. The plan, long stymied by opponents in the Legislature, proposed pumping more money into the California Advanced Services Fund and reshaping its mission so that communities like hers would benefit. It turned out to be one of the toughest state political battles of 2017.