|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
OWN VOICE. ~ InPerspective by Gregg Dieguez —
The recent announcement of a Coastal Development Permit (CDP) application by the Calif. Department of Technology indicates that the State continues to follow up on our request for improved broadband communications Coastside. San Mateo County, however, is another matter.
Images: Click to enlarge for improved readability in a new window.
A public post in HMB alerted us that plans are underway to honor our request for a Middle Mile fiber cable down the Coast which we can use to support more reliable internet (and phone) communications. For those of you who have not been following, a brief recap…. The Federal Government (thanks to our Congresswoman Anna Eshoo) has launched a $40+B national initiative to create decent internet connectivity across the nation – analogous to the 1950’s Eisenhower initiative for the Federal Highway System. The State – buttressed by billions from the Federal Government – has launched the Middle Mile Broadband Initiative (MMBI) to deploy improved internet here. There is some urgency because, in order to be repaid, qualifying projects must be committed/planned by the end of 2024, and completed by the end of 2026. The MCC prepared a Telecommunications Report led by Leo Gomez, which flagged numerous deficiencies Coastside including: speed, coverage, and reliability. Supervisor Mueller had flagged the lack of a redundant cable for Comcast when the New Years’ Storm of 2023 cut the service run along Highway 84, but the problems are/were much broader than that.
As a result, the MCC gathered endorsements from local governments and agencies (e.g. HMB, MWSD, CUSD, SAM, etc.) and wrote the County in July requesting it fund a $100k Feasibility Study and form a legal entity to receive and disburse those funds. While no written reply has been received, we understand from back channels that the County is not willing to fund that study. In August, we became aware that the State had REMOVED Highway 1 from inclusion in the MMBI. We were later told it was because it was too expensive to do so in our area.
Of COURSE it’s expensive here: that’s why the Oligopoly hasn’t provided decent service, and why we are so vulnerable to communications isolation, given tsumani, earthquake, wildfire, stormwater, and sea level rise risks! Which is why we NEED that reliable communications more than say, a flat, arid area mid-state.
In response, we enlisted Congresswoman Eshoo, Senator Becker, and Assemblyman Berman and wrote a group letter to Governor Newsom requesting our area be restored to the MMBI. And while we never got a reply, we did hear from MMBI staff that we were back in the program. This recent posting confirms what we were told.
Now, we still need funding to study and price how we’re going to get from a fiber backbone into each school, fire station, home, public building, etc. But as Jim Carey said: “You’re telling me, THERE IS A CHANCE!”.
We still have not received a written commitment from the County on any Measure K monies which will be allocated to Coastal priorities. We asked Adam Ely last night at the MCC meeting if he could get us an update. I suggest we will still need to campaign to get a Community Fiber Network off the ground here, but the example is clear in other Calif. counties, like Marin, that this is a recognizable and reasonable community priority, for safety, healthcare, education and commerce. In fact, without reliable and fast internet, I doubt HMB’s new venture incubator can attract many startups.**
You can help keep vigilant watch on the map on your own here. And in a continuing surprise, they put Highway 92 (which had always been Phase 2 of MMBI) back in Phase 1 as well, giving us a robust “loop” of fiber redundancy without going all the way to Hwy 84, as Comcast does now (and we all know how well THAT’s been working). Pescadero remains out of the “loop” I’m sorry to say.
The screenshot above is for CDP 2-24-0002, which is this project. You can search here for that permit number and follow developments (which I hope are all progress). You can also write the CCC here, but only in support of the effort ;^) [email protected]
Stay tuned for how you can help motivate our County Government in the direction we sorely need.
___________________________
** I say that having served 6 years on MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service, guiding a number of small firms in startup.
More From Gregg Dieguez ~ InPerspective
Mr. Dieguez is a native San Franciscan, longtime San Mateo County resident, and semi-retired entrepreneur who causes occasional controversy on the Coastside. He is Vice Chair of the MCC, but his opinions here are his own, and not those of the Council. In 2003 he co-founded MIT’s Clean Tech Program here in NorCal, which became MIT’s largest alumni speaker program. He lives in Montara. He loves a productive dialog in search of shared understanding.
