Federal Funding Account Grant Application
BACKGROUND
The California Public Utilities Commission’s California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) Last-Mile Federal Funding Account (FFA) was established by Senate Bill 156 (2020) and implemented in Commission Decision (D.)22-04-055. The FFA allocates $2 billion for the deployment of last-mile broadband infrastructure projects in rural ($ 1 billion) and urban ($ 1 billion) counties. FFA proposed grant projects must provide a minimum speed of 100 Mbps downstream and 100 Mbps upstream (100/100 Mbps) and where not possible, 100/20 Mbps. Eligible applicants for FFA grant funding include facilities-based broadband service providers, entities with a CPCN, local government agencies, electric utilities, non-profit organizations, co-operatives, and California Tribes. Eligible locations, residential and business, include locations that do not have access to wireline broadband capable of at least speeds of 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream.
The Public Advocates Office has conducted a high-level overview of the 484 FFA applications received. The following information provides overall summaries of the applications received.
APPLICATION RECEIVED BY SEPTEMBER 29, 2023
Applications Summary:
- Submitted Applications:484
- Challenges Submitted to Applications:896
- Projects in Urban Counties: 334
- Projects in Rural Counties: 142
- Projects in Urban/Rural Counties: 8
- Projects including Disadvantages Communities: 191
- Projects including Low-Income Areas: 405
Oversubscribed Counties (Aggregated Application Requests that Exceed County Allocated Funding):
|
County |
% subs |
County |
% subs |
County |
% subs |
|
San Diego |
599% |
Sacramento |
276% |
San Joaquin |
183% |
|
San Luis Obispo |
504% |
Santa Cruz |
261% |
El Dorado |
181% |
|
Sonoma |
474% |
Tehama |
255% |
Shasta |
181% |
|
Modoc |
452% |
Nevada |
251% |
San Francisco |
178% |
|
Santa Clara |
427% |
Contra Costa |
251% |
Amador |
176% |
|
Tuolumne |
427% |
Fresno |
235% |
Tulare |
174% |
|
Alameda |
423% |
Kings |
231% |
Stanislaus |
174% |
|
San Benito |
408% |
Ventura |
231% |
Sutter |
168% |
|
Napa |
383% |
Santa Barbara |
225% |
San Bernardino |
166% |
|
Solano |
350% |
Yolo |
225% |
Lassen |
156% |
|
Monterey |
343% |
Calaveras |
218% |
Siskiyou |
152% |
|
Mendocino |
328% |
Yuba |
205% |
Del Norte |
146% |
|
Merced |
311% |
Marin |
192% |
Sierra |
140% |
|
Placer |
306% |
Plumas |
191% |
Imperial |
115% |
|
San Mateo |
302% |
Lake |
184% |
Glenn |
114% |
|
Los Angeles |
277% |
Butte |
183% |
Riverside |
100% |
Key Take Aways from Applications:
The following information presents the individual projects with minimum and maximum amounts for funding amount requested, cost per unserved location, median household income, total project locations, percentage of unserved and served locations in the proposed project area and the percentage of disadvantaged and low-income households in the project location. The average amounts across all 484 applications are provided in the last column.
|
Minimum |
Maximum |
Average (484 Applications) |
|
|
Amount Requested |
$9,449 (Merced – PSA) |
$85,914,591 (Fort Bidwell Indian Community FTTH) |
$9,522,564 |
|
Cost per Unserved Location |
$140.14 (San Francisco – PSA) |
$244,071 (FFA Eastside Project) |
$11,493 |
|
MHI |
$19,063 (Tulare – 1G) |
$250,001 (Santa Clara – 1E) |
$78,909 |
|
Project Locations |
36 (SB 2) |
301,318 (LA County Community Broadband Networks) |
4,806 |
|
Served Project Locations |
0 (74 projects) |
287,613 (LA County Community Broadband Networks) |
3,492 |
|
% Served/Total Locations |
0% (75 projects) |
98% (School-aged Childcare & Recreational Facilities Broadband) |
46% |
|
Unserved Project Locations |
13 (SB 2) |
13,705 (LA County Community Broadband Networks) |
1,314 |
|
% Unserved/Total Locations |
2% (School-aged Childcare & Recreational Facilities Broadband) |
100% (82 projects) |
54% |
|
Unserved Disadvantaged Community Locations |
0 (300 projects) |
11,996 (LA County Community Broadband Networks) |
195 |
|
%Unserved Disadvantaged Community Locations |
0% (303 projects) |
100% (3 projects) |
6% |
|
Unserved Low-Income Area Locations |
0 (80 projects) |
10,740 (Los Angeles County Community Broadband Networks) |
527 |
|
%Unserved Low-Income Area Locations |
0% (82 projects) |
100% (26 projects) |
23% |
Top Challenges (Objections) Submitted to Applications
Total Challenges By Application (Project) Name:
|
Application Name |
Count |
|
Alameda - 1 |
12 |
|
Gateway Cities Council of Governments Last Mile Broadband Project |
7 |
|
Tulare - 1C |
7 |
|
Fresno - 1B |
6 |
|
Fresno - 1C |
6 |
|
Fresno - 1D |
6 |
|
Fresno 1 |
6 |
|
Kings - 1 |
6 |
|
LOS ANGELES - PSA |
6 |
|
Nevada - 1A |
6 |
|
Yolo -1A |
6 |
Total Challenges received By Applicant:
|
Applicant |
Count |
|
AT&T Services, Inc. on behalf of its affiliate Pacific Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T California |
597 |
|
Golden State Connect Authority |
56 |
|
Comcast Cable Communications Management, LLC |
47 |
|
Frontier of California Inc. |
34 |
|
Cox Communications California, LLC. On behalf of its subsidiary Cox California Telcom, LLC |
24 |
|
Surfnet Communications, Inc. |
13 |
|
Spectrum Pacific West, LLC |
12 |
|
City of Vallejo |
10 |
|
Gateway Cities Council of Governments |
7 |
|
County of Placer |
5 |
Total Challenges By County:
|
County |
Count |
|
Fresno |
59 |
|
Los Angeles |
47 |
|
San Diego |
45 |
|
Nevada |
40 |
|
Merced |
37 |
|
Placer |
36 |
|
Solano |
35 |
|
Sonoma |
34 |
|
Santa Clara |
33 |
|
Alameda |
29 |
|
Sacramento |
29 |
Top entities that challenged submitted FFA applications:
|
Entity |
Count |
|
Comcast |
193 |
|
Golden State Connect Authority |
103 |
|
Charter |
100 |
|
Cal.net |
98 |
|
unWired Broadband |
72 |
|
Frontier |
49 |
|
AT&T |
47 |
|
Race Communications |
19 |
|
BRB Law Group |
18 |
|
Cox Communications |
18 |
|
Altice USA |
15 |
For information on the FFA application process please visit CPUC's Last Mile Federal Funding Account website.