Click to see the previous boundaries.
Three regional broadband consortia were approved for funding by the California Public Utilities Commission this week. That brings the total to nine, with three more queued up for next month’s meeting. Here’s how it lines up…
- Gold Country Broadband Consortium, $300,000 over two years. Covers Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado and a part of Alpine counties, except for the Tahoe Basin area, which [has its own, separate consortium](). Focus is on finding opportunities for new broadband projects. The Sierra Business Council will take over operation of the consortium from the Sierra Economic Development Corporation.
- Inland Empire Regional Broadband Consortium, also $300,000 over two years. Represents Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Will concentrate on technology and policy development.
- Connected Capital Area Broadband Consortium, $298,750 over two years. Takes in Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. Work plan includes developing broadband infrastructure projects and increasing the availability, affordability and use of Internet services.
- Inyo Mono Broadband Consortium, $105,216 over two years for Inyo and Mono counties. Data-driven infrastructure development program, focused on leveraging the Digital 395 fiber backbone.
- Redwood Coast Connect Broadband Consortium, $208,000 over two years in Del Norte, Humboldt, and Trinity counties. Plans to work on infrastructure deployment, particularly along the State Route 299 corridor and the Klamath River.
- San Joaquin Valley Regional Broadband Consortium, $180,000 over three years. Serves Fresno, western Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare counties. Activities mostly involve promoting broadband use.
You can read more about these consortia here.
- Central Coast Broadband Consortium, $264,500 over five years. Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties.
- East Bay Broadband Consortium, $272,160 over three years. Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano counties.
- Tahoe Basin Project, $200,000 over two years. Focus is on the Tahoe Basin portions of Placer and Eldorado counties, but since broadband has to come from somewhere other than the middle of the lake, passing consideration is also given to the late, great County of Pautah.
More detail about what these three consortia plan to do is here.
Scheduled for consideration on 1 December 2016:
- North Bay/ North Coast Broadband Consortium ($250,000, two years), Marin, Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma counties.
- Central Sierra Connect Broadband Consortium ($249,000, two years), Mariposa, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador and western Alpine counties.
- Los Angeles County Regional Broadband Consortium ($600,000, two years). Represents most of Los Angeles County, via four sub-regions – Central /West Los Angeles, Gateway Cities, San Fernando Valley and South Bay.
A total of 15 groups originally applied for regional broadband consortia grants from the California Advanced Services Fund earlier this year. Programs in northeastern California (a combination of two previous consortia), eastern Kern County and the southern Central Coast region (San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties) are still under review.
Tellus Venture Associates has worked with many of these consortia, in one capacity or another. I’m not a disinterested commentator, take it for what it’s worth.