31% of Californians don’t have high-speed internet, state says. How Newsom can change that
Broadband expansion advocates are pushing California Gov. Gavin Newsom to use $2 billion in federal money to not only bring high-speed internet to communities without access, but also to have the state provide low-cost or free broadband access to low-income households.
Some of those proposals could mean savings for Californians who are paying for broadband expansion via fees and surcharges on voice communication service bills.
But there’s one major hitch to the idea of expanding broadband — it’s not totally clear which areas of California still don’t have high-speed access to internet services. Estimates vary widely, ranging from 120,000 households to 673,000.
Newsom can use a portion of the $26 billion California is projected to receive from the COVID-19 stimulus law signed by President Joe Biden to expand broadband access. That money can also be spent on bonuses to certain essential employees during the pandemic, assisting businesses and other residents of the state that were hit hard during the pandemic and to ease budget burdens created by the pandemic.
Newsom will decide how much to spend in each pot when he submits his proposed budget revisions in May. The California Legislature will then decide what to approve and what to throw out.
“The governor is committed to continuing the state’s efforts to provide all Californians with access to high-performance broadband that’s both reliable and affordable,” said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the California Department of Finance. “President Biden’s American Rescue Act, combined with the sweeping infrastructure proposal he’s just announced, gives California a unique opportunity to accelerate these efforts.”
Congress has paid increased attention to broadband access during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many states have prioritized increasing broadband access to ease children’s access to virtual learning, employees’ ability to telework and access to telehealth services. Broadband access was prioritized in the first major aid package that Congress sent to states during the pandemic.
Telecommunications companies have also steadily increased their lobbying investments since 2016, according to OpenSecrets, a website that tracks federal campaign contributions, though not all of those companies are directly connected to broadband. Companies such as the Internet and Television Association, the Wireless Infrastructure Association and others spent a total of $105 million in lobbying in 2020, up from the $101 million spent in 2019 and the $85 million spent in 2016.
Where is broadband lacking?
The state estimates that 33% of rural households have no high-speed broadband, and Tribal lands are disproportionately impacted, with 24% of homes lacking access.
State officials estimate that 31% of Californians with internet access have not adopted broadband at benchmark speeds. The Federal Communications Commission says the minimum broadband internet connection speed is a download speed of 25 megabits per second and an upload speed of three megabits per second.
A map published by the California Public Utilities Commission in 2019 shows many under-served areas are concentrated in the rugged terrain of the state’s coastal hills and eastern mountains. It also shows poor access parts of Central Valley counties such as Kern, Tulare, western Stanislaus, Colusa and Glenn counties.
Carolyn McIntyre, president of the California Cable and Telecommunications Association, said their estimates for under-served households fall below state estimates — the CCTA believes 120,000 households in California still need broadband access. She credits federal programs and other grants that have driven broadband expansion in the state since 2019.
McIntyre said CCTA has previously called on the Legislature and Newsom to conduct a study on broadband need before spending money to expand it, but she said there was a sense that they didn’t want to further delay expanding broadband.
“The response to our suggestion that there needs to be a study was not received very favorably,” McIntyre said. “What was said to me by various assembly members — and even the governor’s office asked why our proposal didn’t include any funding — it just wasn’t a favorable response in our opinion.”
McIntyre wrote a letter to Newsom in March encouraging him to use $2 billion of the federal money on expanding broadband access. She proposed that $1 billion of that money go toward an existing state program that awards broadband infrastructure grants to connect households that don’t currently have access to high-speed internet services.
Currently, those grants are paid for by customers of voice communication services. Charges vary, but are set to generate $330 million through 2022.
Using schools to find families without internet
The other $1 billion McIntyre proposed going to broadband would be to expand access to low-income households. She spotlighted two bills, by Assemblymember Tom Daly, D-Anaheim, and state Sen. Steven Bradford, D-Gardena, that would provide state money to pay for bulk rate, residential broadband services to low-income households.
Daly’s bill would identify those households through local school districts, while Bradford’s would do so by looking at those in public housing. Bradford’s also proposes providing devices, such as laptops, to low-income households.
If Newsom doesn’t give this money to broadband services now, it’s possible California will have a second shot this year through a Biden proposal to launch a $2 trillion infrastructure spending bill.
McIntyre said they’ll have to look at how that money is distributed before making specific requests on how it’s used.
“The one thing I’ll say is it should be used to make service available where there is no service today,” McIntyre said. “Government funding should not subsidize competition.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
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