SCAG Wireless: California Broadband Initiative

First, Anne spoke about coordination in trenching. Seems like an arcane issue, but believe it or not, trenching is very expensive and there's not nearly enough coordination for different parties to USE THE SAME HOLE!! See the Broadband Collaboration Pilot Project for more information on the California approach to this issue. Here's a quote from that section of the website.

Modification of Rights-of-Way (ROW) Policies and Practices:

* Caltrans has developed a pilot database that enables two-way communication about upcoming infrastructure construction activities in California and encourages collaborative broadband projects among stakeholders. Service providers are able to share construction costs when they wish to build in the same area. See http://www.dot.ca.gov/broadband/.
* If there is sufficient demand, State Agencies will include broadband conduit in their infrastructure projects.
* State ROW fees imposed on broadband providers will be modified so that they are based only upon actual costs incurred by the State.
* ROW permitting will be streamlined through a uniform application.
* Best practice for resolution of ROW disputes will be developed.

Also, the California Broadband Task Force Preliminary Report is available here. Look for the completed report at the end of November - it will include an accounting of the mapping study, as well as a methodology of mapping (see below). Acc. to Anne, the mapping study results will be a dynamic, iterative data gathering process, where results will be cross-checked with the public, and feedback is expected to make the database ever more accurate. (I'm excited, because this data gathering will be based on street addresses, rolled up, which should paint a compelling picture).

Like Connect Kentucky, the state is currently mapping broadband availability, from a WIRELINE standpoint. They will show in tiers broadband availability, in the hope to provide a baseline on both availability (CA is already quite far ahead among big states, but is not doing so well compared to other nation/states), but also with regard to gaps. They assume that both wireline and wireless solutions will address these gaps.

With regard to pricing, the Task Force is working on a pricing matrix as well, which will compare prices in CA against the OECD average (about $47/mo for about 13 Mbs).

In a parallel effort, the California PUC is mapping by census group or track both the percent availability as well as adoption rates, which should be available by mid-2008. The state is estimated to be at about 55% of households, as far as broadband adoption goes.

What's next, after all this data is gathered? We'll see, there appears to be no money for the state government to spend to ameliorate the issues that are identified. So, I guess we'll wait and see. This will be an interesting dance between state efforts, regional initiatives like Orange County's, and local municipal issues like Anaheim's effort with EarthLink and Google's Mountain View project, Google Wi Fi.

I this all seems pretty organic, but also innovative and cutting edge, remember.... this is California, after all. I think it's exciting!