State has invested billions to connect every household to high-speed internet, with little to show for it
During the pandemic, we all saw kids sitting outside Taco Bell for a free Wi-Fi connection to complete their homework because their families didn’t have broadband. The COVID lockdown cast a bright light on the continuing inequities in broadband access across California.
Recent state data collected by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) found that at least 362,000 households are unserved by an internet service provider. To address the digital divide, in 2021, the Legislature and the Newsom administration approved $6 billion for a “Broadband for All” funding package to promote the development of new broadband infrastructure in unserved and underserved communities. These funds were largely provided by the federal government and to be used before December 2026. A significant portion of that funding was put under the administration of the CPUC, which had already been administering a broadband infrastructure grant program for several years with some success.
Fast-forward to 2024. What does California have to show for that investment? Not much.
