People who live in public housing deserve equal treatment from California broadband subsidy program

18 March 2018 by Steve Blum
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Public housing property owners can get grants from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to install broadband facilities and serve residents. Hundreds of communities have taken advantage of it, despite churlish opposition from cable companies, particularly Charter Communications. The California Public Utilities Commission is revising the program, to bring it into line with new rules laid down by assembly bill 1665 last year.

The biggest change is to retroactively enforce restrictions, imposed by an earlier measure, senate bill 745, that require properties receiving grants to be “unserved”, which means that at least one residence lacks service at 6 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds. That was done at the behest of cable lobbyists, who want to protect their turf, and the pricey TV and Internet bundles they sell on it, from the horrors of free WiFi.

It was a bad decision – one of many made by the legislators who voted for AB 1665 and the organisations, particularly the California Emerging Technology Fund, who backed it. But it’s a done deal and the CPUC has no choice but to adapt.

One change the CPUC should make is to raise the standard for subsidised broadband service in public housing communities that do qualify under the new rules. Right now, the CPUC allows subsidised public housing broadband projects to deliver download speeds as slow as 1.5 Mbps, with no requirement for upload performance. As I wrote in the formal comments I drafted for the Central Coast Broadband Consortium and submitted to the CPUC on Friday, that’s not enough…

Californians who live in [publicly supported communities (PSCs)] have the same needs as Californians living elsewhere. Assembly bill 1665 set a minimum of 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds for CASF- funded infrastructure projects. This level of service is below the 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload advanced services standard established by the Federal Communications Commission, adopted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its broadband funding programs, and contemplated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for its PSC broadband program. The CCBC recommends establishing the minimum speed standard for PSC facilities at the same 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up level that is required for other CASF-funded infrastructure projects, and establishing a priority for projects that meet the 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up standard.

Thirteen other organisations submitted comments on Friday, including public housing organisations and the California cable industry’s lobbying front. You can find them all here. Rebuttal filings are due in two weeks.