Title
Chief Administrative Office, Economic Development Division, recommending the Board approve and authorize the Chair to sign a Letter of Support for renewal funding of the Gold Country Broadband Consortium from the California Public Utilities Commission California Advanced Services Fund as administered by the Sierra Economic Development Corporation.
FUNDING: N/A
Body
DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDATION
Chief Administrative Office, Economic Development Division, recommending the Board approve and authorize the Chair to sign a Letter of Support for renewal funding of the Gold Country Broadband Consortium from the California Public Utilities Commission California Advanced Services Fund.
DISCUSSION / BACKGROUND
In 2012, the California Public Utilities Commission approved funding for the Gold Country Broadband Consortia (“Consortia”). The Consortia covers a five-county area of the some five thousand seven hundred sixty five (5,765) square miles in El Dorado, Sierra, Nevada, Placer, and portions of Alpine counties.
The membership of the Consortia includes representation from key stakeholders in each of the represented counties with a vested interest in the expanded availability and adoption of broadband services including consumers (both residential and business), local government (both city and county), Native-American communities, libraries, education, health care, workforce development and economic development entities, accessibility advocates and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The Sierra Economic Development Corporation (SEDCorp) serves the Consortia as the Consortia's manager and fiscal agent.
Since its inception, the Consortia has: (1) developed substantive content on the benefits available via high speed broadband connections; (2) conducted community meetings throughout the region to educate informed consumers of the residents and business owners in those communities; (3) captured the commitment of the community members for adoption of broadband serv...
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