California Public Utilities Commission

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved $12,689,849.72 in grant funding to build high-speed broadband Internet infrastructure and access to unserved Californians. The awards, under the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband infrastructure grant program administered by the CPUC, will serve households in Lassen, Modoc, Kern, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties, and include affordable subscription options. Collectively, the grants—primarily for fiberoptic infrastructure investments—will provide high-speed Internet service to 542 unserved households.

Based on consumer connection and broadband deployment data collected by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), as of Dec 31, 2017, the CA statewide adoption rate is 87.3% at speeds exceeding 200 kilobits per second (Kbps) in at least one direction, or 80.2% at California Advanced Servies Fund (CASF) served speeds of 6 megabits per second (Mbps) down and 1 Mbps up. Even with internet usage and adoption rates increasing at home, our analysis finds that gaps still exist for some households based on certain demographic characteristics. This analysis finds that