Total California broadband grant ask grows to $528 million, twice what’s available

6 May 2020 by Steve Blum
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Sick piggy bank

The number of broadband infrastructure projects proposed for California Advanced Services Fund subsidies more than doubled on Tuesday, as two Internet service providers – Charter Communications and Digital Path – distributed summaries of the grant applications they submitted on Monday. The total, though, didn’t increase nearly as dramatically.

The count now stands at 52 project proposals totalling $528 million, up from 25 projects at $506 million. That’s against something like $300 million or less in the CASF broadband infrastructure account. The full list, including links to the public summaries, is below.

Charter is asking the California Public Utilities Commission to pay 100% of the cost of extending its hybrid fiber-coax networks to 16 Californian neighborhoods and 2,800 homes, stretching from Shasta County in the north to Orange County in the south. The total ask is $17 million, which comes out to a $6,100 subsidy per home. It also wants the same waivers of price guarantees and free installation it asked for and received when it applied for four grants and got three last year.

Like other wireless Internet service providers, Digital Path isn’t asking for a lot of money, at least compared to the wireline applicants. It wants $4.8 million for 11 wireless projects in the northern end of the state and the Central Valley which will cover 3,200 homes, at an average subsidy of $1,500 each. The project summaries it distributed yesterday are light on details, including how much, if any, skin the company is willing to put in the game or what it will charge customers. It doesn’t explicitly say that it’ll use unlicensed frequencies to deliver last mile service, but reading between the lines that appears to be the plan.

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
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
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 $528,136,253 22,826 $23,137

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.