Bill by Rep. Jared Huffman seeks to expand Internet service in rural areas

North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman introduced legislation Wednesday that would expand the landmark 1936 Rural Electrification Act to provide reliable broadband service to isolated pockets of America, including communities in his district that still don’t have affordable high-speed Internet service.

The bill would broaden federal investment in telecommunications infrastructure and seek to break down barriers that block community groups from accessing $670 million in funding intended to help bridge the nation’s digital divide.

“High-speed broadband is essential to economic development, public safety and a vibrant quality of life,” Huffman said in a statement. “This legislation is a step towards ensuring that our rural and remote North Coast communities are not left behind.”

Thousands of North Coast residents and business owners, particularly those in rugged coastal areas along Highway 1, are without access to the kind of reliable high-speed Internet that urban denizens take for granted in everyday life.

A report released last year by the California Public Utilities Commission identified nearly 14,000 Sonoma County households as unserved or underserved because of slow or nonexistent fixed broadband availability. Mendocino County had an additional 12,800 underserved households.

It’s not for lack of trying.

Collaborative partnerships around the North Coast and Northern California have worked for years to develop successful proposals that would extend fiber-optic routes to areas whose sparse populations meant such efforts didn’t pencil out for commercial telecommunication companies.

The most promising proposal - a $138 million initiative that would have put high-speed Internet within reach of 150,000 residents in 16 counties, including Sonoma and Mendocino - collapsed last year, in part because commercial providers challenged the need for so many routes, saying that it was no longer financially feasible, organizers said.

Current language in the Rural Electrification Act - which initially provided federal loans to extend electrical power and, later, telephone service to rural areas - favors existing telecommunications providers, essentially giving them first right of refusal for development of new fiber- optic routes.

The new bill would make it easier for regional partnerships, developed in the absence of action by commercial providers, to compete for grants and loans.

Co-sponsored by Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Rick Nolan, a Democrat from Minnesota, the bill also would change the definition of a rural community from one with 5,000 residents to one with 20,000, so that geographically broad partnerships can qualify.

It would double the broadband funding available through the Rural Utility Service, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, from $25 million to $50 million a year beginning in 2016.

The measure includes funding for technical grants to help community groups apply for federal loans and loan guarantees.

“I believe it’s good news and am excited about the potential,” said ?Trish Steel, executive committee chairwoman of the Broadband Alliance of Mendocino County.

Huffman said, “Our government’s promise of universal service should mean just that: high-quality, high-speed broadband service for every American household. Investment in broadband today will provide a better future for our communities tomorrow.”

You can reach Staff Writer ?Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or ?mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.