As digital inclusion advocates across the nation push for the restoration of Digital Equity Act funding a year after President Trump unilaterally “terminated” the bipartisan Congressional law, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved $3.29 million in grants aimed at dramatically shoring up digital training and public broadband access in communities across the state.
All told, more than 18 new digital literacy projects and three expanded public broadband access projects will be funded, impacting more than 16,000 Californians.
According to the CPUC announcement, the projects, paid for from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) Broadband Adoption Account, will provide digital literacy training to 5,345 participants and deliver broadband access to 10,800 additional community members in underserved areas.
The funded CPUC projects run the gamut across all corners of the state, from $180,325 to provide digital literacy and data skills training for veterans in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, to $751,780 to help fund five different digital literacy projects assisting older Americans in Alameda County, Orange County, Riverside County, San Francisco, and San Jose.
The biggest grant, $1.19 million, will be used to help fund eight Golden Bridge Program digital literacy projects serving seniors, low-income residents, justice-involved youth, and high school students in the Sacramento region.
Grant recipients across the 18 digital literacy projects will provide at least eight hours of digital literacy instruction per participant and “support broadband subscription enrollment where appropriate.”
In addition to the digital training and literacy initiatives, a $463,644 grant will also help Connected Communities Hub projects establish free public Wi-Fi broadband access sites in Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz counties.
“California has made significant investments in deploying broadband infrastructure, but delivering on the statewide goal of Broadband for All also requires lowering the barriers many Californians face in accessing internet services or using the internet effectively,” CPUC Commissioner Darcie L. Houck said of the initiative.
Houck’s comments echo a central point the Trump administration has ignored. The administration has repeatedly and falsely claimed that rescinding Digital Equity Act funds is “saving” taxpayers money, even though the law was already designed to ensure new networks being built with taxpayer funding are worth the cost.
“These awards will support organizations across 14 counties in conducting digital literacy initiatives serving critical, vulnerable populations and enabling public access to broadband in communities with significant need.”
This year’s grants came on the heels of a similar round of grants issued in July of 2025, awarding $1.4 million across 14 digital literacy and access projects around the state.
The digital literacy and access grants are one small part of California’s landmark $6 billion Broadband for All Initiative, which prioritized closing the digital divide in all of California’s 58 counties, and recently culminated in the launch of the state’s new $3.2 billion Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative (MMBI).
While the last and middle mile grant programs attempt to leverage an historic infusion of government funding to boost competition and expand physical affordable broadband access to long-underserved populations, the digital literacy programs attempt to ensure the public is poised to make the most of the opportunity.
