Cable Modem Chasm: Broadband's Reach Still Not Getting to Many Californians

CABLE MODEM CHASM: BROADBAND'S REACH STILL NOT GETTING TO MANY CALIFORNIANS
[SOURCE: The Record (Stockton, CA), AUTHOR: Dana M. Nichols]
California, once a global leader in providing Internet access to its residents, is now falling behind some other countries and even some U.S. regions, according to a state report. Mountain Ranch, Rail Road Flat, Mossdale, Vernalis, Thornton and hundreds of other rural communities are blank dead spots on a recently released state map showing broadband Internet access. About one in every 25 Californians lives in one of those blank spots. That all may change in the next two years as the state government spends $100 million collected from utility bill surcharges to leverage $250 million in private-firm investment to expand broadband access. The state Public Utilities Commission established the California Advanced Services fund in December. Over the next two years, that fund will match 40 percent of the cost when a private company pays 60 percent of the cost to extend service.
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