California PUC creates $100 million rural broadband fund

Using a 3MBPS down, 1MBPS up benchmark to define what is broadband, the state’s PUC allocated a pile of money to help jump start the service in rural areas.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) yesterday allocated $100 million over two years to the new California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), which will provide incentives to companies to bring broadband service to unserved and underserved areas of California, a recent press release announced.

According to the release, many of the unserved areas are rural, remote or socio-economically disadvantaged communities.

’Today’s decision signals that this state is not content to sit around waiting for federal action to bring broadband to every part of our state,’ CPUC President Michael R. Peevey said in the release. (from Yreka’s Siskiyou Daily News)

We are usually leery of government funding of infrastructure, since the money usually ends of in the hands of a duopoly member, who usually manages to build slowly, and demand more money on an ongoing basis. If the California PUC can manage to trump last mile right of ways and out-lawyer the duopoly by allowing true competitors a shot at providing service, this could actually do a lot of good. Unfortunately, I doubt that this is how the initiative will actually play out.