On Thursday, the California Broadband Council (Council) approved the final draft of its Broadband for All Action Plan (Plan), which broadly outlines the State’s strategy to bridge the digital divide. The Plan highlights numerous challenges to statewide adoption of high-speed internet connectivity, such as availability, affordability, and access to appropriate devices. Specific actions set forth in the Plan include:
- modernizing the state broadband definition to conform to the federal standard of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload, with a goal of 100/20 Mbps;
- improving existing state and local processes to expedite deployment;
- identifying alternative broadband infrastructure financing opportunities; and,
- setting reliability standards for critical infrastructure.
The Council directed staff to make several minor modifications to the Plan before publicly releasing the final document at the end of the month. The Plan will be reviewed periodically by the Council and updated as necessary.
The Governor issued Executive Order N-73-20 in August, which directed the Council to create a new state broadband action plan outlining how the state could accelerate broadband deployment and adoption. RCRC provided comments to the Council during the Plan drafting process, and encouraged the Council to prioritize open access projects, require connectivity speeds of 100 Mbps symmetrical, and allow municipal broadband to receive equal consideration for state funding. RCRC’s comment letter can be found here. For further information, contact Tracy Rhine at trhine@rcrcnet.org.