California’s Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently signed off on Verizon’s $20 billion merger with telecom giant Frontier with some notable conditions. As part of Verizon’s settlement with the CPUC, they’re being required to offer affordable broadband, improve network resilience, and expand fiber and cellular access into long-neglected portions of the Golden State.

According to the CPUC approval announcement, the agency voted 5-0 to approve the merger after months of deliberation and negotiation with Verizon.

One cornerstone of the CPUC’s agreement is that Verizon will be required to offer significant support for its "Verizon Forward" service, which offers home Internet access for as low as $20 a month (either 300 megabit per second (Mbps) symmetrical fiber or 100/20 Mbps wireless) to California homes that qualify for existing low-income assistance programs.
 
Under that part of the arrangement, Verizon pledges to maintain that $20 per month price point for the next decade.

Verizon’s Frontier Deal Comes With Strings Attached

This comes on the heels of a recent CPUC study that found “the average monthly price for a plan at or above 100 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 20 Mbps upload – the Federal Communications Commission’s benchmark for broadband speeds – is $116.68” – “far above what many households can afford.” The study further indicates that in large swaths of the state “low-income households spend more than 15% of their discretionary income on broadband service.”

Two dozen California cities are making progress bringing affordable fiber to 16,500 new locations in the Golden State. The collaborative middle mile project, dubbed the Gateway Cities Council of Governments' (GCCOG) Gateway Cities Fiber Optic Network Project, could revolutionize connectivity for a broad swath of Californians long stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide.

While the project should be transformative, questions remain if the project will reach the full potential of its original 2021 vision after some significant revisions were made to California’s expansion plans in the summer of 2023.  

The $104 million broadband infrastructure project is leveraging money from the California Department of Technology’s Middle Mile Broadband Initiative and the California Public Utilities Commission’s Last Mile Federal Funding Account Grant Program (FFA).

Both are part of a broader $6 billion California “Broadband For All” initiative aimed at boosting broadband competition and driving down broadband access costs statewide. The initiative in turn was enabled by 2021 federal infrastructure and COVID relief legislation resulting in a generational flood of historic broadband subsidies.

All told, the $104 million Gateway Cities Fiber Optic Network Project aims to connect 24 cities, 4,254 unserved locations, and as many as 16,500 locations with 74 miles of next-generation gigabit-capable fiber. The network will also bring faster fiber connectivity to 72 anchor institutions and public safety entities scattered across Southeast California.

Antelope Valley, California officials are hoping to leverage California’s historic recent round of broadband grant programs to deliver affordable fiber access to a significant swath of long-underserved southern California desert communities.

According to Antelope Valley officials, they’ve applied for a $24.3 million California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) Broadband Infrastructure grant to help them deliver symmetrical 10 Gigabit Passive Optical Network (XGS-PON) technology to 988 total households, most of which would be seeing affordable fiber access for the first time ever.

A breakdown of the project included in the application submitted by the Antelope Valley Union High School District to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), indicates that the proposed project seeks to connect to the California State Middle Mile route at two points currently being negotiated in collaboration with state Middle Mile Authorities.

“The award will not be determined until approximately quarter two of next year,” Antelope Valley Union High School District Superintendent Greg Nehen tells ILSR.

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The Antelope Valley Broadband Project would be constructed with 100 percent underground fiber installation, with all fiber-optic cables placed in buried conduit within public rights-of-way, using underground microducts, handholes, and splice enclosures. No aerial deployment is planned for this project, according to project leaders.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is poised to include new broadband affordability requirements as part of the state’s looming approval of Verizon’s massive $20 billion merger with Frontier Communications, even as some consumer advocacy groups worry the changes may not go quite far enough to hold Verizon accountable.

The CPUC’s Public Advocates Office has struck a partial settlement with Verizon that the state hopes will take some of the sting out of the telecom industry’s latest consolidation spree.

Verizon’s $20 billion proposed merger with Frontier would merge two of the nation’s top four traditional phone companies, resulting in a telecom giant with assets across 31 states. The merged new company would have more than 9.6 million customers with a fiber network that ultimately passes more than 25 million fiber homes and businesses.

While the two companies don’t directly compete, Verizon’s political influence and market power will still increase. Both companies have long been criticized for lobbying to undermine U.S. broadband competition, then leveraging the resulting regional market failure to jack up consumer costs and neglecting aging DSL network upgrades and repairs.

In the wake of a federal abandonment of most meaningful Internet equality efforts, California municipalities continue to take the fight for equitable broadband access into their own hands. 

That includes Sonoma County, California, where county officials have freshly greenlit expanded plans to provide free broadband access to low income residents.

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Target: Affordable Housing

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors recently announced that it has approved a list of new affordable housing sites that are eligible to receive free Internet for one year.

According to the county, 556 low-income Sonoma County households across 10 different housing locations should qualify for the free broadband service.

The deployments are being made possible by the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which continues to result in some fairly transformative fiber deployments countrywide.

“The Board has prioritized finding creative solutions to broadband infrastructure development in Sonoma County,” Board of Supervisors Chair Lynda Hopkins says of the effort.

“This free internet program is a step toward equity as we continue to pursue public funding and strategic partnerships that can finally close the digital divide facing many of our shared communities.”

Last week, a California Assemblymember who had sponsored legislation for a broadband affordability law abruptly withdrew the legislation. 

But what really killed the broadband affordability bill in California? Was it opposition to the proposed legislation from within the state or pressure from the Trump administration?

The Bill Was Advancing Until…

Modeled on New York’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA), the California Affordable Home Internet Act was first introduced in January. It aimed to require Internet service providers that operate in the Golden State to offer a $15 per month broadband service plan for income-eligible households.

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The proposed legislation was introduced as AB 353 by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner and was initially supported by the California Alliance for Digital Equity (CADE).

Over the intervening months, CADE and proponents of the bill offered resources and recommendations on how the bill could be made more effective than the ABA, hoping to avoid the pitfalls that advocates were seeing with the rollout and implementation of New York’s law.

On June 4, the California bill advanced through the state Assembly and moved on to the state senate by a 52-17 margin.

California lawmakers’ efforts to pass a new law mandating affordable broadband access is at risk of being destroyed by industry lobbying. California insiders say the changes are so dramatic they may wind up making broadband affordability in the state worse – undermining years of digital equity activism and discarding a rare opportunity to bridge the digital divide.

The California Affordable Home Internet Act (AB 353), introduced by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner last January, would require that broadband providers in the state provide broadband at no more than $15 per month for low-income households participating in a qualified public assistance program.

The original legislation mandated that state residents should be able to receive $15 for all ISPs for broadband at speeds of 100 megabit per second (Mbps) downstream, 20 Mbps upstream. The proposal mirrored similar efforts by New York State which opened the door to other state efforts after the Supreme Court recently refused to hear a telecom industry challenge.

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“I want to get something fair and reasonable that helps those who need it most,” Boerner said in a press release. “AB 353 will fill the gap and ensure our children can turn in their homework, families can get access to telehealth, and apply for jobs online.”

On June 4 a vote moved the legislation through the state Assembly and on to the state senate by a 52-17 margin.

Just 40 miles north of the heart of Silicon Valley, the City of Oakland has its sights set on implementing an ambitious Broadband Master Plan.

Dubbed the OaklandConnect project – unanimously approved on May 20 by the Oakland City Council – the plan calls for the construction of a city-owned open access fiber network to expand affordable broadband connectivity to over 33,000 households that city surveys indicate are languishing without home Internet service.

While Oakland is served by Comcast and AT&T mostly (with a smattering of Sonic and T-Mobile hotspots), the service in many areas is substandard, expensive, or both – in a city where surveys indicate affordability as the primary reason so many do not have home Internet service.

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Once the East Bay city of 436,000 completes network construction, it would be one of the largest publicly-owned open access networks serving a major metro area in the nation – and may serve as inspiration for other large cities to follow suit with a model that’s been proven to bring affordable local Internet choice in monopoly-dominated markets.  

Construction crews have begun work on Fort Bragg’s long-awaited municipal fiber network, which will ultimately bring affordable fiber to the California city of 7,000.

The total cost of the project is estimated to be $17 million. Of that, $10 million will be paid for by a Last Mile Federal Funding Account (FFA) grant from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), awarded in February to help fund the construction of a Middle Mile Broadband Network (MMBN) that will run directly through the heart of Ft. Bragg.

The remaining project costs will be paid for by a $7 million, 20-year loan at 4.85 percent from EverBank, recently approved by the Fort Bragg city council.

“This project is a cornerstone for the future of Fort Bragg,” City Manager Isaac Whippy said of the milestone. “Reliable, high-speed internet is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity. With this investment, we’re closing the digital divide and making Fort Bragg a more connected, competitive, and inclusive community.”

According to a city announcement, Ft. Bragg’s citywide fiber network, 170 miles north of San Francisco, is being designed with a centralized data hub and 15 Distribution Areas (DAs). Using horizontal directional drilling, crews will install conduit and fiber underground – primarily beneath sidewalks and alleys – connecting to a fiber terminal located near the edge of the city’s right-of-way at each property.