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California Governor Gavin Newsom announced his proposal to invest $7 billion in building a public broadband infrastructure to bring high-speed internet access to more of the states residents.
According to reports, 83.4 percent of Californians are currently using broadband, only 52 percent of those connections reach speeds of 100 Mbps. The issue for rural households or homes on tribal lands lies here. 51.3 percent of the former group and 28.4 percent of the latter group have no access to 100 Mbps Internet period.
“[Universal] access to high-speed Internet is critical to the state’s economy, education, and basic health and well-being, and will be a key component of the state’s long-term recovery,” stated by the budget. “The pandemic has underscored the importance of making broadband accessible and affordable for educational, employment, and health purposes.”
Of course, they are only in the planning stages of making this happen but Newsom believes the project if passed will give access to high-speed internet for millions of people in California, and create “tens of thousands of quality jobs” at the same time “to help the state’s economy recover from the pandemic.”
NEW: CA will be closing the digital divide. We’re investing $7 billion to achieve BROADBAND FOR ALL — making broadband more accessible than ever before.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) May 14, 2021
