California Policymakers Plot Broadband Path After Newsom Seeks 100 Mbps
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and state legislators expect to talk broadband, after the governor set a goal of 100 Mbps download speeds through executive order Friday, said the governor’s office and an aide to Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) this week. Legislators are weighing two bills to raise the state standard from 6 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload for the California Advanced Services Fund. The executive order put legislative negotiations in flux, said Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon.
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Newsom directed state agencies to pursue broadband with at least 100 Mbps downloads “to guide infrastructure investments and program implementation to benefit all Californians.” The governor asked the California Broadband Council to create a state broadband plan by Dec. 31. The California Public Utilities Commission should “seek opportunities to use programs under its jurisdiction to accelerate broadband deployment and to leverage utility infrastructure to increase access to existing fiber and cost-effectively deploy new fiber,” the order said. Also, the CPUC should lead broadband data aggregation and mapping efforts and develop tools for low-income individuals to find affordable broadband plans, it said. The EO also contains directives for several other state agencies.
State fiscal committees are reviewing two bills proposing different minimum speeds (see 2007280043). The Senate Appropriations Committee placed AB-570, which would require at least 25/3 Mbps, into its “suspense file” Monday, a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly. The Assembly version of that panel held in suspense SB-1130, which would set a 25/25 Mbps minimum, last week. The federal standard is 25/3 Mbps.
“The governor’s office expects to continue conversations with the legislature on broadband,” emailed a Newsom spokesperson, declining comment on the specific bills. “The download speed is a goal for agencies to pursue,” which “can be incorporated in agency process depending on the specific circumstances,” the rep emailed Monday. “Overall, the purpose is to set a marker to encourage and support broadband at speeds that are sufficient to meet current needs.”
The Gonzalez office plans to meet this week with Newsom staff and Senate leadership, Gonzalez aide George Soares emailed Tuesday. The SB-1130 sponsor generally likes the EO because it includes 100 Mbps downloads and fiber, and hopes in “coming days to figure out the rest of the details such as upload speed and funding,” he said. Soares predicted the Assembly Appropriations Committee would clear SB-1130 Thursday. AB-570 author Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D) didn’t comment Tuesday.
“We're in pretty active discussions and a little bit of a holding pattern after Friday,” EFF's Falcon emailed Monday. It’s clear Newsom has a plan “and we have to be in synch,” Falcon said. EFF, the chief supporter of SB-1130, supports a 100 Mbps download standard but is concerned Newsom didn’t specify a minimum upload speed, said Falcon, saying broadband asymmetry “is a relic of cable television companies becoming broadband companies and leveraging distribution systems to deliver access.” The EO “could have a lot of positive overlap” with SB-1130 because 100 Mbps requires fiber, so it could act as phase one toward universal fiber to the home, “but those details are still being actively worked out,” he said.
The EO helps guide lawmakers weighing what to pass before Monday's legislative deadline, said Rural County Representatives of California Legislative Advocate Tracy Rhine in a Tuesday interview. The governor seems more in tune with SB-1130 than AB-570, and the EO might persuade Aguiar-Curry to raise speeds in AB-570, said Rhine, predicting both bills will clear fiscal committees this week, with amendments likely. “There are a lot of conversations going on, trying to figure out where the landing place needs to be with both of these measures” and how it fits with Senate Majority Leader Robert Hertzberg’s (D) stimulus bill that includes broadband for distance learning, she said.
RCRC supports the EO setting a minimum speed that seems to endorse fiber and reject DSL, Rhine said. A plan with 100 Mbps downloads probably would have a satisfactory upload speed even if it’s asymmetrical, Rhine said. “I don’t think you could have 100 down and 3 up.” The EO’s timing makes sense with children returning to school amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she noted.
The Utility Reform Network supports the order but sees more work to do, TURN Managing Director-San Diego Christine Mailloux emailed. She said the EO “mainly provides a sense of urgency and priority for all of us to sit down and get to work and take the necessary steps in the public interest, not the corporate interest.”
Cable and telephone companies tend to resist upload mandates, but the EO target of 100 Mbps download “stands as a rebuke” to industry supporting AB-570, blogged Tellus Venture Associates President Steve Blum, a consultant to local governments. AT&T, Frontier Communications and the California Cable & Telecommunications Association didn’t comment.