Policies and Initiatives
With more than
80 years of experience
At CalBroadband, we are committed to using our expertise and advocacy to advance the expansion and adoption of broadband across California. Our work seeks to close the digital divide by expanding broadband infrastructure to unserved areas and increasing the adoption of high-speed internet in all communities, while maintaining a prudent business environment that enables broadband service providers to continue connecting California.
Policy Positions
As the Golden State’s leaders in providing high-speed internet services, we utilize the collective experience of our member, who have been deploying broadband since the mid-1990’s, to develop policy recommendations to connect the unserved, improve broadband adoption rates and encourage infrastructure modernization.
Broadband Affordability
The price of broadband has trailed inflation in stark contrast to other necessary goods and services purchased by consumers. In fact, based on data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, on an inflation-adjusted basis, the year-over-year change in the price of internet services was negative throughout 2021, with the size of this decline generally increasing throughout the year. Prices have remained constant for internet service as the value in terms of speed has increased. This has been true even through strong increases in demand.
CalBroadband supports efforts, such as such as the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), to remove barriers to adoption. ACP is a government partnership with internet service providers that makes high speed, home broadband available to eligible households at no cost to them.
Connecting the Unserved
Cable broadband operators offer fast, reliable broadband to 97% of California homes and business, making gigabit speeds widely available. Cable broadband providers are participating in state programs, such as the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) Instructure Grant Account, and federal programs, such as the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, to close the remaining unserved households. CalBroadband is advocating to ensure funding with the CPUC’s Federal Funding Account ($2 billion) and the forthcoming federal funding from the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program are allocated for the purpose of connecting unserved households to achieve 100% broadband availability in the Golden State.
Spurring Continued Innovation
CalBroadband members have collectively invested more than $45 billion to deploy and upgrade California’s broadband infrastructure and networks over the last two decades. In that time, cable broadband providers have rolled out gigabit speeds across their footprints and provide ubiquitous service to communities throughout their networks.
In 2019, the cable broadband industry unveiled the 10G initiative, announcing engineering and technology testing to make next-generation networks a reality, bringing 10 gigabit per second (Gbps) speeds to households across America. With the 10G initiative, the cable broadband providers are reinventing how people connect, live, work, and play.