CASF Changes Sought for COVID-19 Response

Pay for Wi-Fi hot spots and other devices for students through the California Advanced Services Fund, commented the state Education Department Thursday to the California Public Utilities Commission. U.S. E-rate doesn’t cover that, Ed said. The department would apply and disseminate devices to students through county education offices, it said in docket R.12-10-012. Others supported rolling application deadlines. CalTel and other small rural LECs urged the same for infrastructure. “This will allow providers to assess areas of need in light of evolving information and react to changing broadband usage patterns brought on by the statewide ‘shelter-in-place’ order,” the small telcos said. The California Cable & Telecommunications Association isn’t against rolling deadlines if limited to addressing COVID-19 and opposes “wholesale changes to the CASF program made under pressure during a [COVID-19] crisis.” Streamline procedures for awarding and administering CASF infrastructure grants, commented AT&T. GeoLinks sought increased upfront costs to expedite projects. Fund public housing deployment, said San Francisco. The Electronic Frontier Foundation urged sought network performance and outage data to analyze “why ISPs have seemingly yielded wildly different results across the state when it comes to delivering broadband access during the pandemic.” Fiber seems to best absorb increased demand, EFF said. Consumer and rural advocates seek changes (see 2004090056).