The Governor of California proposes an investment of $ 7 billion in the broadband

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The Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, explained his plans what to do with the surplus of the state and federal recovery funds, which includes $ 7 billion over three years to develop broadband infrastructure. If the Legislative Assembly of the State approves the May California’s proposal for a review budget, California will have to work on one of the main public broadband fiber projects in the United States.

“[Universal] High-speed Internet access is essential to the economy, education and health and well-being of the state basis, and will be a key element of the long-term recovery of the state, “said the budget. “The pandemic stressed the importance of making broadband and affordable accessible for educational, employment and health purposes.”

Depending on the budget, 83.4% of residents use broadband but just over 52% are capable of obtaining speeds of 100 Mbps. It notes that 51.3% of rural households do not have access to 100 Mbps Service and NI 28.4% of tribal land houses. The problem persists even in urban areas. About half of households without access to 100 Mbps broadband are located in these parts of the state.

The budget establishes a plan to build a “Mixi-mile” network, efficiently a highway and a broadband infrastructure from the main road. Suppliers reported that it was expensive to connect parts of the state to broadband networks, particularly in rural areas. As such, California plans to create a loan loss reserve account of $ 500 million to help non-profits, local governments and tribes have private funding for municipal fiber networks (or the “Local Road” of the infrastructure). Newsom also hopes to provide other incentives to suppliers to connect unlocking or poorly serviced households to the network.

In addition to developing the infrastructure, a key objective is to make broadband access to high speed more affordable for California. Newsom wrote on Twitter that the state “will closing the digital fracture”.

It will be several years before this network is fully operational (assuming it is approved). Those who have struggles with IFFY connections while working at home or at remote schooling during the pandemic will not benefit from this plan immediately. Nevertheless, improved broadband infrastructure will improve internet access for millions of long-term California and, depending on the proposal, it will “create tens of thousands of quality jobs to help the economy of the State to recover from the pandemic “.