Governor Newsom, California Legislative Leaders Announce Historic Broadband Budget Bill

The legislation includes:

• More vital accountability and legislative oversight.
• Creating a ‘broadband czar’ and nine-member council within the California Department of Technology.
• Hiring a third-party to build and maintain the ‘middle-mile network’ – high-capacity fiber lines that carry large amounts of data at higher speeds over longer distances between local networks.
• Investing $3.25 billion to target that middle mile and build the broadband lines.
• Providing $2 billion for ‘last-mile’ infrastructure lines that will connect consumers’ homes and businesses with local networks ($1 billion for rural communities; $1 billion for urban communities).