California broadband infrastructure grant requests total $533 million as challenge period opens

21 May 2020 by Steve Blum
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Two more broadband project proposals surfaced as the California Public Utilities Commission posted the official list of applications for grants from the California Advanced Services Fund. One is for what appears to be a neighborhood fiber to the premise (FTTP) system in Nevada County, the other is an FTTP project that covers the same Placer County area that Charter Communications proposed for a hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) build.

The total now stands at 54 projects asking for a total of $533 million, about twice what’s available in the CASF kitty now. The entire list is below, but for future reference, I’ve also posted here, and will update that page as necessary.

Exwire, a Truckee-based wireless Internet service provider, wants to enter the wireline world by building an FTTP system in the Kingswood area of Lake Tahoe. It would serve, its application says, “240 homes and 110 unbuilt lots”. The ask is $4.5 million, or $19,000 per existing home. The public summary doesn’t say how much of its own money it proposes to put into the project, if any at all.

Charter Communications is also asking for a CASF grant to extend its Tahoe cable system to the Kingswood area. It’s requesting $1.2 million to pay the entire tab for building out HFC plant to 120 homes, at a cost of $10,000 each. Exwire proposes to serve what looks like a larger area, but its application also notes that the CPUC classifies some of it as already having broadband service, at least at the achingly slow level of 6 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds that the California legislature thinks is perfectly adequate. Exwire disputes the CPUC’s finding.

Nevada County Broadband – an apparently newly formed company – is asking for $552,000 – 94% of the total – to build an FTTP system in two small residential pockets in the mountains outside of Nevada City. They propose serving 50 homes at a cost of $11,000 each.

By posting all 54 applications and maps, the CPUC also kicks off a three week window for incumbent providers to challenge the proposals by submitting information that shows they’re already providing service in project areas. At that miserable 6 Mbps down/1 Mbps up level.

CASF Project Proposals – 4 May 2020 Grant Application Window

Project Applicant Grant
Request
Housing
Units
$/HU County Tech
Bella Vista Charter $715,356 60 $11,923 Shasta HFC
Brookside Charter $933,563 243 $3,842 Los Angeles HFC
Country Meadows Charter $2,165,515 314 $6,897 San Bernardino HFC
Darlene Road Charter $815,967 7 $116,567 Ventura HFC
El Dorado Estates Charter $1,477,032 276 $5,352 Ventura HFC
Foothill Terrace Charter $489,513 327 $1,497 Los Angeles HFC
Kingswood Estates Charter $1,210,006 120 $10,083 Placer HFC
Los Alisos Charter $1,299,530 451 $2,881 Orange HFC
Monterey Manor Charter $796,198 92 $8,654 San Bernardino HFC
Mountain Shadows Charter $2,006,811 132 $15,203 San Bernardino HFC
Oxnard Pacific Charter $1,725,964 171 $10,093 Ventura HFC
Plaza Village Charter $658,436 178 $3,699 Orange HFC
River Oaks Charter $829,462 45 $18,432 San Benito HFC
Riverbank Charter $299,115 43 $6,956 Stanislaus HFC
Soboda Springs Charter $983,817 249 $3,951 Riverside HFC
Villa Montclair Charter $548,279 64 $8,567 San Bernardino HFC
Butte Yuba Digital Path $872,761 582 $1,500 Butte, Yuba Wireless
Fresno County Digital Path $448,349 299 $1,499 Fresno Wireless
Glenn County Digital Path $361,500 241 $1,500 Glenn Wireless
Lake County Digital Path $123,000 82 $1,500 Lake Wireless
Mendocino County Digital Path $138,000 92 $1,500 Mendocino Wireless
Plumas Lassen Digital Path $865,000 577 $1,499 Plumas, Lassen Wireless
Sacramento County Digital Path $230,000 154 $1,494 Sacramento Wireless
Sierra County Digital Path $241,000 161 $1,497 Sierra Wireless
Siskiyou County Digital Path $138,000 92 $1,500 Siskiyou Wireless
Sutter Placer Digital Path $418,433 277 $1,511 Sutter Wireless
Tehama County Digital Path $935,976 624 $1,500 Tehama Wireless
Central Coast Etheric $3,180,330 1,976 $1,609 Monterey, San Benito Wireless
Kingswood West Exwire $4,464,478 240 $18,602 Placer FTTP
Crescent City Frontier $1,586,885 134 $11,842 Del Norte FTTP
Cuyama Frontier $12,462,755 131 $95,136 Kern, Santa Barbara FTTP
Garberville Frontier $3,776,254 106 $35,625 Humboldt FTTP
Herlong Frontier $7,668,801 273 $28,091 Lassen FTTP
Knights Landing Frontier $4,590,845 104 $44,143 Colusa, Sutter, Yolo FTTP
Lake Isabella Frontier $9,595,168 405 $23,692 Kern FTTP
Mad River Frontier $8,169,979 203 $40,246 Humboldt, Trinity FTTP
Northeast Phase 2 Frontier $10,358,969 502 $20,635 Plumas, Tehama FTTP
Piercy Frontier $7,797,273 805 $9,686 Mendocino FTTP
Smith River Frontier $1,428,479 55 $25,972 Del Norte FTTP
Hoopa Valley Hunter $8,233,340 1,198 $6,873 Humboldt FTTP, wireless
Mendocino County Hunter $290,327,940 5,870 $49,460 Mendocino FTTP, wireless
Buckeye/Banner Nevada County Fiber $589,648 50 $11,793 Nevada FTTP
Long Valley Plumas Sierra $4,118,255 54 $76,264 Plumas FTTP
Mohawk Valley Plumas Sierra $2,271,039 54 $42,056 Plumas FTTP
Portola Plumas Sierra $2,587,677 85 $30,443 Plumas FTTP
Scott Road Plumas Sierra $4,307,475 88 $48,949 Lassen, Sierra FTTP
Sierra Valley Plumas Sierra $5,123,342 283 $18,104 Plumas, Sierra FTTP, wireless
Southern Lassen Plumas Sierra $13,630,662 868 $15,704 Lassen FTTP
Gigafy Arbuckle Race $4,241,181 480 $8,836 Colusa FTTP
Gigafy Backus 2 Race $4,702,649 266 $17,679 Kern FTTP
Gigafy Nevada City Race $6,154,776 499 $12,334 Nevada FTTP
Gigafy Williams Race $6,758,805 588 $11,495 Colusa FTTP
Sonoma/Napa Web Perception $1,450,697 504 $2,878 Napa. Sonoma Wireless
West Sonoma County WiConduit $81,886,095 1,342 $61,018 Sonoma FTTP
Total $533,190,379 23,116 $23,066

The Central Coast Broadband Consortium (CCBC) supported Charter’s San Benito County proposal and assisted Etheric Networks with its application. The Connected Capital Area Broadband Consortium (CCABC) assisted DigitalPath. I assisted the CCBC and the CCABC, and also kibitzed on other projects. I’m not a disinterested commentator. Take it for what it’s worth.