California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco
_________________________________________________________________________________
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Terrie Prosper, 415.703.1366, news@cpuc.ca.gov
CPUC APPLAUDS CALIFORNIA BROADBAND TASK FORCE REPORT AND PLEDGES TO CONTINUE
STATEWIDE LEADERSHIP ON BROADBAND ISSUES
SAN FRANCISCO, January 17, 2008 - California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) President Michael R. Peevey and Commissioner Rachelle Chong today praised the California Broadband Task Force on its final Report, The State of Connectivity: Building Innovation Through Broadband, and emphasized the CPUC's commitment to continue its efforts to bring broadband to every California community.
The Report, issued today, adopted three key goals:
1) California must ensure ubiquitous and affordable broadband infrastructure, made available through a variety of technologies to all Californians;
2) California must drive the creation and use of applications that produce the greatest economic, educational, and social benefits for California's economy and communities;
3) California must construct next-generation broadband infrastructure, positioning California as the global economic leader in a knowledge-based economy.
"The Report appropriately concludes that our investment in broadband should not be limited to physical infrastructure, but should include policies to increase applications and adoption of broadband technologies, such as expanding educational and healthcare opportunities and raising levels of civic engagement," said President Peevey. "The CPUC created the California Emerging Technology Fund to accomplish these goals. Early this year the CETF will grant almost $20 million to nonprofit organizations that will focus on access and adoption of broadband throughout California, particularly in rural, remote, low income, and disadvantaged communities. The CPUC intends to continue to provide statewide leadership on broadband issues to implement the Report."
"The good news is that most Californian's have access to broadband, but the Report does shows that 1.4 million of mostly rural Californians lack broadband access at any speed and that only half of Californians have access to broadband at speeds greater than 10 Mbps," commented Commissioner Chong, a member of the California Broadband Task Force. "These statistics show that California has more work to do if it wants to remain a leader in the global information economy. On December 20, 2007, the CPUC unanimously approved a new California Advanced Services Fund of $100 million to partner with carriers of any technology to bring fast broadband to these `digital have-not' communities. At a recent event at the University of Southern California, the Governor asked the CPUC to take aggressive action to bring broadband to all Californians, and we are indeed doing that."
The Report recommends key actions to help California achieve its goals:
· Build out high speed broadband infrastructure to all Californians.
· Develop model permitting standards and encourage collaboration among providers.
· Increase the use and adoption of broadband and computer technology.
· Engage and reward broadband innovation and research.
· Create a statewide e-health network.
· Leverage educational opportunities to increase broadband use.
· Continue state-level and statewide leadership.
The Report is available at www.calink.ca.gov/taskforcereport.
For more information on communications issues, please visit www.CalPhoneInfo.com.
For more information on the CPUC, please visit www.cpuc.ca.gov.
###
