Telecommunications: universal service programs: California Advanced Services Fund.

Existing law, the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, establishes a program of cooperative federalism for the regulation of telecommunications to attain the goal of local competition, while implementing specific, predictable, and sufficient federal and state mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service, consistent with certain universal service principles. The universal service principles include the principle that consumers in all regions of the nation, including low-income consumers and those in rural, insular, and high-cost areas, should have access to telecommunications and information services, including interexchange services and advanced telecommunications and information services, that are reasonably comparable to those services provided in urban areas and that are available at rates that are reasonably comparable to rates charged for similar services in urban areas. The act authorizes each state to adopt regulations to provide for additional definitions and standards to preserve and advance universal service within the state, only to the extent that they adopt additional specific, predictable, and sufficient mechanisms that do not rely on or burden federal universal service support mechanisms. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including telephone corporations, as defined. Existing law establishes the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) in the State Treasury and requires that moneys in those funds are the proceeds of rates and are held in trust for the benefit of ratepayers and to compensate telephone corporations for their costs of providing universal service and may be expended only to accomplish specified telecommunications universal service programs, upon appropriation in the annual Budget Act or upon supplemental appropriation. Existing law requires the commission to develop, implement, and administer the CASF to encourage deployment of high-quality advanced communications services to all Californians that will promote economic growth, job creation, and substantial social benefits of advanced information and communications technologies, as provided in specified decisions of the commission and in the CASF statute. Existing law establishes 3 accounts, the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account, the Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Grant Account, and the Broadband Infrastructure Revolving Loan Account within the CASF. Existing law prohibits the commission from collecting, before January 1, 2011, more than $100,000,000, for deposit into the CASF through a specified surcharge authorized by the commission. Existing law authorizes the commission to collect an additional sum not to exceed $125,000,000, after January 1, 2011, for a sum total of moneys collected through the surcharge not to exceed $225,000,000. Existing law authorizes the commission to collect the additional sum through the 2015 calendar year. Existing law requires that of the moneys collected after January 1, 2011, $100,000,000 is to be deposited into the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account, $10,000,000 is to be deposited into the Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Grant Account and used for specified purposes, and $15,000,000 is to be deposited into the Broadband Infrastructure Revolving Loan Account and used for specified purposes. This bill would establish the Broadband Public Housing Account within the CASF and would authorize the commission to transfer $20,000,000 from the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account and $5,000,000 from the Broadband Revolving Loan Account to the Broadband Public Housing Account if the commission is otherwise authorized to collect funds for purposes of the CASF in excess of the $225,000,000 the commission is authorized to collect through December 31, 2015, under existing law. The bill would authorize not more than $20,000,000 from the Broadband Public Housing Account be available for grants and loans to a publicly supported community, as defined, to finance a project to connect a broadband network to that publicly supported community. The bill would authorize not more than $5,000,000 from the Broadband Public Housing Account be available for grants and loans to a publicly supported community to support programs designed to increase adoption rates for broadband services for residents of that publicly supported community. The bill would require the commission, in reviewing a project application to consider the availability of other funding sources for that project, any financial contribution from the broadband service provider to the project, the availability of any other public or private broadband adoption or deployment program, including tax credits and other incentives, and whether the applicant has sought funding from, or participated in, any reasonably available program. The bill would authorize the commission to require an applicant to provide match funding, and prohibit the commission from denying funding for a project solely because the applicant is receiving funding from another source. This bill would incorporate additional changes in Section 281 of the Public Utilities Code proposed in SB 740, that would become operative only if SB 740 and this bill are both chaptered and become effective on or before January 1, 2014, and this bill is chaptered last. The provisions of the bill would become operative only if this bill and SB 740 of the 2013–14 Regular Session are both enacted and become effective on or before January 1, 2014.