Posted by: thepinetree on 10/26/2010 09:45 AM
Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 10/26/2010 04:24 PM
Expires: 01/01/2015 12:00 AM
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Golden State Cellular and Partners Recipients of $6.659,967 Broadband Grant!
Jamestown, CA...California Public Utilities Commission announcement of a $6,659,967 matching grant from the California Advanced Services Fund to the Central Valley Independent Network project. The project will bring improved high speed internet access to the central valley region and Amador, Calaveras, Mariposa and Tuolumne Counties. Golden State Cellular owners Volcano Telephone, Calaveras Telephone and Sierra Telephone are partners in the CVIN....
More background information on the grant and the greatly improved infrastructure it will provide are detailed in the CPUC release below...
CPUC LEVERAGES FEDERAL RECOVERY GRANT
WITH APPROVAL OF CENTRAL VALLEY
INDEPENDENT NETWORK PROJECT
SAN FRANCISCO, October 14, 2010 - The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) today
approved a matching grant of $6,659,967 from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to
the Central Valley Independent Network (CVIN) project to bring high-speed Internet access to
unserved rural areas of Fresno, Tulare, Kings, and Kern counties and to connect public anchor
institutions in 18 Central Valley counties to each other through this broadband infrastructure.
The CPUC’s CASF matching grant represents 10 percent of the broadband infrastructure project
costs of $66.60 million to preserve and create jobs, and promote economic benefits and recovery.
Today’s approval by the CPUC directly leverages a $46.62 million dollar grant awarded on August
18, 2010, from the $7.2 billion broadband stimulus portion of the federal American Reinvestment
and Recovery Act.
As of September 1, 2010, the CVIN Project is one of six successful California applicants for
Recovery Act grants for broadband deployment that will benefit the state.
The balance of $13.33 million or 20 percent of project costs will be provided by the project sponsors
from their own capital sources.
CVIN will build, operate and maintain a middle mile fiber-optics network serving 18 Central Valley
counties: Amador, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Fresno, Kings, Kern, Mariposa, Merced, Madera,
Nevada, Placer, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Tulare, Sutter, and Yuba.
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CVIN will also build a last mile WiMax wireless network in Fresno, Tulare, Kings, and Kern
Counties to bring high-speed broadband access for the first time to unserved, rural communities
containing 710,102 residents, 206,764 households, and 20,502 businesses.
In addition, 60 anchor institutions will be connected to each other at network speeds of 1-10Gigabit:
11 community college districts, 19 county Offices of Education sites, three CSU universities, 20
county libraries, and seven public safety sites. Through this project, health facilities in 18 counties
will also be connected to the California Telehealth Network.
The Central Valley Independent Network Project is an undertaking of CVIN and the Corporation for
Educational Network Initiatives in California (CENIC). CVIN formed in 1995, has eight rural
independent telephone company members: Sebastian, Ponderosa, Sierra, Calaveras, Volcano, Ducor,
Cal-Ore, and Siskiyou. CENIC, founded in 1997, has five members: the University of California
System, the California State University (CSU) System, California Community Colleges, the K-12
System, and private universities (USC, Stanford, Caltech).
The CPUC originally established the $100 million CASF in December 2007 to provide 40 percent
matching infrastructure grants to broadband providers willing to put up the matching 60 percent of
funds and to serve the nearly 2,000 California communities that are currently unserved and
underserved by broadband. In July 2009, the CPUC revised the funding guidelines to 10 percent
matching CASF grants provided the applicant is seeking Recovery Act funding for 80 percent of its
project cost.
Today’s conditional approval brings the total broadband infrastructure grants to $57.87 million out
of CASF’s $100 million.
Applications for CASF grants are still being accepted by the CPUC. CPUC Resolution T-17143
authorized the Communications Division to establish new filing periods in the event that CASF
funds remain. Prospective applicants may submit new CASF funding applications for a 40 percent
CASF grant.
For information on the Governor’s Broadband Taskforce, please visit
www.calink.ca.gov/taskforce/aboutus.asp. http://www.cvin.com/About.html
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