State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

How an Innovative Tech Fund Is Helping to Expand Internet Access in California's Low-Income Communities

Route Fifty: Over the past 10 years, a remarkable institution in California has been fueling sustained progress in closing the digital divide, bringing many thousands of low-income households the benefits of broadband internet services.

Now, with its original source of funding at an end, the California Emerging Technology Fund is working to find new partners to bring an added 500,000 households online in the next five years.

That is a number that would look huge in most every other state, and even in populous California it represents a big challenge. But CETF and the state government have set a goal of wiring 90 percent of the state’s households by 2023. Today, connections are in place for between 84 percent and 87 percent, though close to a fifth are connected only through smartphones. Each percentage point in the huge states represents 130,000 homes.

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