Over 100 Years After Electrification: Will California Lead the Way to Internet as a Public Utility?

The Affordable Connectivity Program is ending and California has a monumental, once-in-a-generation opportunity to lead our communities into a new era of equitable affordable connectivity, not unlike the electrification of the United States in the early-to-mid 1900s. Internet affordability in California, like much of the country, relies on the goodwill of profit-driven Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and family enrollment in the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a subsidy program whose funds are set to run out in the coming months, which was never designed to be a long-term affordability solution. Despite not having a public utility designation, broadband infrastructure projects in California are overseen by both the California Department of Technology and the California Public Utilities Commission, similar to other utilities but without the protections for communities that a utility classification could provide. When ACP enrollment is no longer an option, the state will be faced with a challenge: How will we ensure that communities continue to have access to a resource upon which our basic needs depend?  How do we avoid placing the most vulnerable California households in the position of having to decide between paying their internet bill or their water and gas? Our hope is that broadband internet as a public utility will be seen as both an option and an opportunity for California to once again pave the way for the rest of the country.