California Creates $100M Broadband Fund

CPUC PROMOTES BROADBAND SERVICE IN UNSERVED AREAS OF CALIFORNIA TO BRIDGE DIGITAL DIVIDE
[SOURCE: California Public Utilities Commission 12/20/2007]
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) allocated $100 million over two years to the new California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), which will provide incentives to companies to bring broadband service to unserved and underserved areas of California, many of which are rural, remote, or socio-economically disadvantaged communities. CASF will be a new universal service program, beginning on January 1, 2008. It is limited to $100 million over a two year period. Workshops will be held in February 2008 at the CPUC to determine the criteria and application process for assessing applications for unserved and underserved areas of California. After it approves the final criteria in a resolution, the CPUC will focus first on funding for areas where no facilities-based provider offers broadband service with the ultimate goal of making available a level of broadband service that provides a reasonable balance of technology, engineering, and cost. A 3 megabits per second (Mbps) download and a 1 Mbps upload speed is adopted as the benchmark for evaluating applications. To further the CPUC's universal service goals, approved providers will also provide voice service as one of the applications available over the broadband service. A deadline of June 2, 2008 is set for submission of CASF funding requests. The CPUC will require applicants to provide a minimum of 60 percent matching funds as a prerequisite for consideration of their applications. CASF funds are for authorized capital projects on approved broadband deployment projects and may not be used for general operating and maintenance expenses. Funding for the CASF will be collected using a surcharge on telephone customer bills. CASF funding will not increase customers' total surcharges, however, because the CASF surcharge will be offset by an equal reduction in the California High Cost Fund-B surcharge to reflect the full effect of changes to that program approved by the CPUC in August 2007.
http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PUBLISHED/NEWS_RELEASE/76879.htm