The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) announced funding of about $7 million to three projects via The California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account.
By far the largest grant announced is the Equal Access Summits to the Sea Project. It will provide as much as $5.65 million to enable Cruzio Media Inc. to build a middle-mile and last-mile network to facilitate high-speed broadband to unserved households in Monterey, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.
“The Summits to the Sea project serves rural, agricultural, and low-income communities flanked by mountainous areas,” Cruzio Media’s Chief Operating Officer James Hackett said in a public announcement. “Not far to the east are the affluent, tech-saturated cities of Silicon Valley. It is difficult to imagine a greater technical contrast — a greater digital divide. Fiber-optic broadband infrastructure is especially challenging throughout. The inability of residents to participate in the dominant industry of the area causes economic hardship and social division. The Summits to the Sea project addresses this serious situation.”
The second greatest funding amount was provided to the Mobile Home Park 1 Project. It will provide as much as $889,083 to enable Kwikbit Internet, Inc. to deploy a fixed wireless access network that will provide broadband to 197 unserved households in manufactured home parks in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties.
Finally, the ConnectAnza Phase Three Project will provide $688,431 to the Anza Electric Cooperative, Inc. to install 3.74 linear miles of fiber on existing poles as part of an FTTH project to help bring broadband access to San Jacinto Mountain communities.
Last November, the state of California said that its Federal Funding Account received 484 applications for a total of $4.6 billion, which was more than double the amount it had budgeted. The fund is used for last mile infrastructure. Every county applied for funding.
Check out Telecompetitor’s Broadband Nation California page for more information on project funding and state-specific Telecompetitor coverage in The Golden State.
