As federal broadband funding sources face continued uncertainty, California’s massive last-mile grant program continues to plow ahead, looking increasingly like a vital lifeline for communities hoping to ensure that every individual has access to robust, reliable, and affordable Internet access.

Cold Springs Rancheria of Mono Indians was among the applicants celebrating a winning grant application in the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) latest Federal Funding Account (FFA) announcement.

The grant marks the eighth successful application by a Tribal nation in this program and another in a long list of community-focused projects led by public entities like municipalities.

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Cold Spring Rancheria’s application, for up to $1.5 million dollars, will bring much-needed connectivity to a total of 94 units, including 5 anchor institutions, on the Reservation in Fresno County with 100 percent of the households served by this project qualifying as low-income.

Many residents on the Reservation lack access to a terrestrial Internet service offering speeds anywhere near the definition of broadband (100 Mbps Upload/20 Mbps Download). Those that do have access to purported “broadband” speeds must rely on out-of-date DSL connections and, as a result, struggle with slow and spotty connections.

After working for several years to find a viable solution to these connectivity challenges, Tribal officials can now look forward to the fastest and most reliable Internet access via fiber-to-the-home technology.

The new, Tribally-owned broadband network will help the Tribe achieve universal access.

With New York’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA) now in effect, lawmakers in other states are filing similar legislation that requires large Internet Service Providers to offer low-cost plans for financially-strapped households in their respective states.

In Massachusetts, State Sen. Pavel Payano filed a bill earlier this month similar to New York’s law that seeks to establish a $15/month plan for low-income households in the Bay State.

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Then, earlier this week, California Assemblymember Tasha Boerner introduced Assembly Bill 353 that would mandate ISPs “make affordable home Internet plans available to California residents,” Boerner’s office said in a press release.

“Right now, families are struggling to afford essential services, like the Internet,” Boerner said in a press statement.

Speaking to why passing an affordable broadband law was important, Boerner put it in plain terms, noting that “households in our state don’t have support to pay for a basic home Internet service plan. We are talking about kids not being able to do homework at home, parents having to go to libraries to apply for jobs, and people not having access to do basic things, like telehealth.”

California’s $2 billion Last Mile Federal Funding Account Grant Program (FFA) has announced another $207 million in new broadband grants across Amador, Los Angeles, and Solano Counties.

The FFA program, part of a broader $6 billion California “Broadband For All” initiative, is aimed at boosting broadband competition and driving down costs statewide.

According to the state’s announcement, $61 million in new grants were awarded by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for five Last Mile FFA broadband infrastructure grant projects in Amador and Solano Counties, bringing affordable fiber Internet access to approximately 10,000 Californians.

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The CPUC award details indicate that the grants will be awarded to the Golden State Connect Authority (GSCA) and the City of Vallejo to help bring fiber access to 2,278 unserved locations in Amador and Solano counties.

The City of Vallejo will leverage $3.8 million in state grants to complete four different projects laying predominantly underground fiber, with the city retaining ownership of the finished network and Smart Fiber Networks providing last mile consumer-facing service.

On the most recent episode of the Connect This! Show, the panel was joined by California-based Internet Exchange builder Matt Peterson of SFMIX. Matt has been in the broadband space for many years on the deployment and operations side of the wholesale and peering system, and joined the show today to talk about the need for better, more practical, more forward-thinking middle mile networks across the United States. However the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program (BEAD) ultimately ends up, if we want to see more competition and the most efficient use of public dollars there is no doubt that we will need additional infrastructure connecting those last-mile networks that hook up businesses, residents, and community anchor institutions around the country.

These are the networks that connect our networks back to the larger Internet; they traverse county roads and state highway systems. Some are owned by and exclusive to the largest providers, like AT&T. Others, like Project THOR in Colorado, were collectively built to increase resiliency for the public good, as well as stimulate last-mile retail service in underserved and unserved parts of the country. California is in the midst of multi-billion dollar middle mile endeavor, and a handful of others states are likewise making significant investments. 

So the question is: are we building enough middle mile in the United States, and equally importantly, are we building it correctly? With all sorts of public and private interests involved, and networks that are often measured in the thousands of miles (or tens of thousands of route-miles of fiber), often with public money, it's an important thing to get right.

We wanted to underline the importance of these things by featuring this segment of the show. The panel talks about the consequences of decisions about everything from where these networks are built, how they are funded, transparency and marketing, and the importance of talking to the last-mile operators that will be interconnecting with them. 

Watch Christopher Mitchell (ILSR) and Travis Carter (USI Fiber) with regular guests Kim McKinley (UTOPIA Fiber) and Doug Dawson (CCG Consulting), joined by special guest Matt Peterson (SFMIX) talk about it all below. 

The middle-mile discussion starts at the 36:00 mark.

Placerville, California will soon be a place with a municipally-owned open-access fiber network as the city of 10,000 looks to provide its residents and businesses with local choice and more affordable broadband service.

The years-long effort was launched after frustration with what the city’s 2021 Broadband Master Plan described as the “equivalent of an ISP (Comcast) Monopoly.”

“Because of this,” the plan noted, “residents and businesses in Placerville are exposed to the common limitations of monopolies” – a high-priced reality that prompted 98 percent of city survey respondents to say “yes” to a municipally-owned network.

Now, three years after that report was published – and thanks to a $20.1 million award from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Last Mile Federal Funding Account (FFA) grant program – a city that was once nicknamed “Hangtown” is now set to cut the noose of the ISP monopoly.