California’s primary broadband subsidy program will stay on its present course, at least until the legislature changes it or the California Public Utilities Commission resets priorities and rules going forward. That’s the takeaway from a CPUC vote to approve a $1.1 million grant from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) for a fiber to the home project in southern Santa Clara County.
It’s an important message to independent Internet service providers who might be considering CASF-funded projects in the future: it’s expensive to prepare and submit applications – more than $100,000 in some cases – and the prospect of having one rejected a year or two later because the rules changed increases the risk beyond the point most are willing to go.
By a 3-to-2 vote, the commission approved the Light Saber Project grant, which will pay about 60% of the cost of building out an FTTH system to 150 homes in the Paradise Valley community, in the hills east of Morgan Hill. It was the second time commissioners considered the grant. The first time, they kicked it back for more work.
This time around, the debate wasn’t really about the project itself. Rather, the debate centered on whether CASF grants should be put on hold until the commission sets new priorities for the program and/or the California legislature rewrites the rules completely.
Broadband subsidy priorities shouldn’t be set retroactively, commissioner Liane Randolph told her colleagues…
The applicant put together a project under our current system, proposed it to us and as we’ve discussed there are changes and kind of systemic modification we can make to the program, or we’re happy to take further legislative direction on how to prioritise projects, but I’m hesitant to not let a particular project move forward when they’ve presented it with the program we currently have in the effect and are administering it right now.
Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves didn’t agree, saying that as it stands, the CASF program lacks focus…
The bigger driver for me is the lack of prioritisation of the program and that’s really the context. I think the legislation will inform that. Now, the bigger issue for me is that we do have a structure that I don’t currently agree with, but I appreciate that these are the rules that are in place today.
Randolph was joined by commissioners Carla Peterman and Clifford Rechtschaffen in voting to approve the project. Along with Guzman Aceves, commission president Michael Picker also voted no.