Member-only story
Newsom’s California fiber dream
100gbs symmetrical to every home in the state or bust!
This morning, California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled an audacious budget whose crown jewel is a plan to pump $7b into medium-haul fiber links that will link every community in the state, no matter how remote or rural.
If passed — it needs a simple majority in the legislature — this will make California home to America’s most extensive state broadband network, and reverse decades of ISP lobbying against the provision of modern telcoms infrastructure to replace 20th century copper lines.
The plan uses state money to bring fiber to the town limits, then creates a pool of low-cost, long-term loans — repayable over 30–40 years — that local governments tap to build their local fiber grids, according to their local needs, under local management and ownership.
And, as with the electrification effort of the New Deal, the plan creates an expert agency that can advise towns on designing those networks and train local people on maintaining them.
This is the patient money the market won’t provide. Fiber broadband investment is future-proofed and may supply all…
