Community Economic Development

Community Broadband

A Future for Universal Broadband in California

Universal, high-speed broadband access has become a pressing priority in public policy, the marketplace, and civil society. Universal accessibility necessarily involves forms of community-controlled broadband (municipal, co-op, nonprofit, JPAs, or dark fiber leased to private providers).

 

Background


The United States ranks poorly amongst developing countries for high-speed broadband access. Advocacy groups have been trying to bridge the digital divide:

  • Availability
  • Affordability
  • Quality of service
  • Relevance
  • Digital literacy 

Despite that, broadband in California has remained behind the rest of its Western counterparts.

That is, until two recent events.

  1. California’s massive investment in community owned broadband. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/07/20/governor-newsom-signs-historic-broadband-legislation-to-help-bridge-digital-divide/

This legislation includes:

  • $3.25 billion to build, operate and maintain an open access, state-owned middle mile network – high-capacity fiber lines that carry large amounts of data at higher speeds over longer distances between local networks.
  • $2 billion to set up last-mile broadband connections that will connect homes and businesses with local networks. The legislation expedites project deployment and enables Tribes and local governments to access this funding.
    • Co-ops and other institutional models are also allowed.
  • $750 million for a loan loss reserve fund to bolster the ability of local governments and nonprofits to secure financing for broadband infrastructure.
  • Creation of a broadband position at the California Department of Technology, and a broadband advisory committee with representatives from across state government and members appointed by the Legislature.

The other event being:

2. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law injected an additional $65 billion into bridging the digital divide - https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/11/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-brings-high-speed-affordable-internet-to-tribal-communities/

 

Community Broadband Webinar Series


The series will address:

  • Why does universal broadband access require forms of community-control?
  • What are models of public or community control of broadband?
  • Who has successfully provided high-speed broadband through community broadband, and how?
  • How can low-resourced, marginalized communities advance universal broadband access?
  • How can communities harness their new assets to be a “digital-ready economy,” once community broadband is deployed?

We will provide guidance and peer support on the following:

  • The long-term determinants of successful broadband deployment.
  • Business planning considerations.
  • Business operational guidelines, including support system services available.
  • Insights into capitalization.
  • Opportunities to leverage the new broadband infrastructure for other economic development opportunities.

 

Who Should Participate?
Public officials: Local administrators, Public Utility Commissioners, County Supervisors, City Council members

Utilities providers who want to enhance their public service charges, as well as the resilience of their utility: Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), Municipal utilities, Water systems, Irrigation Districts, Independent utilities companies and ISPs

Citizens from communities who are interested in bringing broadband to their community. 

Workforce members who are interested in expanding opportunities for working remotely. 

 

Documentaries

How Anza Electric Co-operative Developed a Broadband Subsidiary


Anza Electric Co-op is one of the smallest electric utilities (and community owned) in an isolated rural region of Southern California. Despite its small size and not-for-profit status, Anza is a leader in renewables and microgrids. The secret? Anza’s broadband subsidiary, which not only enhances its electric business, but allows Anza to provide high-speed broadband in a service territory that for profit ISPs claimed was impossible.

Our documentary asks:

  • Why did Anza build an ISP subsidiary, and how did Anza do it?
  • What support system exists for Anza, that could be applied to other communities seeking to build-out a community-owned broadband ISP?
  • What were the positive outcomes of developing a broadband subsidiary?
  • Why did it matter to their electricity and community economic development interests?
     

 

South Carolina’s Carolina Connect Nonprofit Association


UC Davis Professor Keith Taylor interviews Carolina Connect’s CEO Glenn Martin about their fiber-to-the-home association, controlled by three South Carolina electric cooperatives. In this interview, you will learn about

  • The challenges of operating a low-margin electric cooperative in a low-income service territory.
  • How three small electric cooperatives determined that their collective need to enhance and modernize the grid could be better achieved through the creation of a nonprofit subsidiary, Carolina Connect.
  • The differences in operations between a for profit internet service provider (ISP) and a nonprofit ISP.
    • Why the preferred profit margins of for-profit ISPs are a barrier to the provision of rural broadband.
    • How Carolina Connect’s not for profit orientation allows it to excel.
  • The economics and advantages of a not for profit in advancing high speed broadband in rural regions.

 

Scaling Local - How East River Electric Cooperative Aggregates the Community Economic Development Programming of Their Member Utilities


Community-owned utilities are often smaller than their investor-owned counterparts, but have numerous community economic development obligations. As new community-owned broadband utilities emerge, they too will face similar obligations. Learn about how over 20 Midwest utilities co-ops pooled their resources through East River Electric Co-op to build their REED Fund, a coordinated community economic development initiative resulting in almost 400 loans valued at over $100 million, creating over 10,000 jobs.

This interview addresses:

  • How small, community-owned co-ops, through a co-op of co-ops, may develop a model for how new ISPs can work together to achieve economies of scale.
  • How new utilities can be drivers of economic development.

 

NineStar Connect’s Electric, Water, Cable, and Broadband Utility Model


UC Davis Professor Keith Taylor interviews NineStar Connect’s CEO Michael Burrow and Board Director Steve Vail about their multi-utility cooperative. In this interview, you will learn about

  • How an electric cooperative justified merging with a telephone cooperative
  • How the experience of merging into a multi-utility system increased the tolerance for NineStar to experiment with cable TV, telephone, and broadband.
  • How broadband creates “smart utilities” efficiencies through all of the utilities systems.
  • How existing electric -and other- utilities can leverage fiber infrastructure upgrades to
    • Enhance existing utilities services (such as electricity and water), and
    • Create an entirely new business and revenue stream that benefits
      • The utility business,
      • Customer satisfaction, and
      • Community quality of life and well being.

 

Starting from Scratch: Minnesota’s RS Fiber Cooperative


The digital divide will require a number of tools in the community’s economic development toolbox. One such tool is the creation of new community-owned ISPs. The challenge is that many small, rural communities are ill-equipped to deal with the complexities of incorporating and capitalizing a community-owned ISP. UC Davis’s Professor of Cooperative Extension and Community Economic Development Keith Taylor interviews Jacob Rieke, a Minnesota farmer who founded RS Fiber Cooperative about the successful launch of their ISP cooperative.


In our interview, we discuss:

  • The challenges of starting a broadband co-op from scratch
  • The importance of leveraging key community partners
  • Available support networks to launch a community-owned ISPs, everywhere.

 

Tri-County Electric Cooperative CEO Chad Lowder Interview: Fiber-to-the-home subsidiary


UC Davis Professor Keith Taylor interviews Tri-County Electric Cooperative’s CEO Chad Lowder about their fiber-to-the-home subsidiary. 

In this interview, you will learn about

  • The challenges of operating a low-margin electric cooperative in a low-income service territory.
  • How Tri-County Electric Cooperative is able to leverage critical electric system upgrades to provide high-speed fiber-to-the-home broadband, absent government subsidies.
  • New electric grid demands -in the form of household solar generation, batteries, and electric vehicle charging- means that utilities will need to modernize their “last-mile” to-the-home distribution systems.
  • Grid modernization requires two-way communications technologies in the form of fiber-optics. Fiber infrastructure can add additional overhead costs. But it also provides an opportunity for new utilities revenue streams.
  • Tri-County “lit up” their fiber optic to offer a new line of business to their consumers; high-speed, fiber-to-the-home broadband. This line of business will help offset the cost of grid modernization.
  • How existing electric -and other- utilities can leverage fiber infrastructure upgrades to
    Enhance existing utilities services (such as electricity and water), and
  • Create an entirely new business and revenue stream that benefits
  • The utility business,
  • Customer satisfaction