AB2279 - California Advanced Services Fund: Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Grant Account.

Amended IN Senate June 30, 2026 Amended IN Assembly April 06, 2026 Amended IN Assembly March 16, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 2279 Introduced by Assembly Member Gipson (Coauthors: Senators Reyes and Rubio) February 19, 2026 An act to amend Section 281 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to communications. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 2279, as amended, Gipson. California Advanced Services Fund: Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Grant Account. Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish the Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Grant Account in the California Advanced Services Fund and makes the moneys in the account available for grants to eligible consortia to facilitate the deployment of broadband services by assisting infrastructure applicants in the project development or grant application process. Existing law requires each consortium to conduct an annual audit of its expenditures for programs funded pursuant to those provisions and to submit to the commission an annual report that includes specified information. This bill would instead require moneys in the Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Account to be available for grants to eligible consortia primarily to facilitate the deployment of broadband services by assisting infrastructure applicants in the project development or grant application process. In facilitating the deployment of broadband services, the bill would authorize the consortia to undertake activities that promote broadband adoption within specified areas, including all infrastructure project areas that received California Advanced Services Fund grants on or after January 1, 2020, as specified, neighborhoods and communities identified by jurisdictions receiving local agency technical assistance grants, or areas where construction of infrastructure deployment and upgrade investments are made pursuant to public benefit agreements by parties to corporate consolidations approved by the commission. The bill would require the commission to allocate sufficient funds to the account to provide multi-year grants to eligible consortia to engage and regularly convene specified representatives and to implement an approved regional work plan consistent with a standardized scope of work determined by the commission, which would be required to include specified strategies and infrastructure-related activities, as provided. The bill would require the annual base funding grant per consortium to be no less than $200,000, plus an increased amount based on the number of unserved and underserved locations, unconnected households, and the number of low-income households in the region, but not to exceed $500,000 per consortium per year. region, as provided. The bill would delete the requirement for each consortium to conduct an annual audit and would revise the information required to be included in the annual report to the commission. commission, as specified. The bill would authorize the commission to engage experienced nonprofit organizations through an open, competitive process to assist the commission and support the consortia, as provided. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because the above provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a commission action implementing this bill’s requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YES Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Regional Broadband Consortia Empowerment Act of 2026. SEC. 2. (a) The Legislature finds and declares both of the following: (1) Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia (consortia), established in 2010 by Senate Bill 1040 (Chapter 317 of the Statutes of 2010), are assets and vital resources to the State of California and Public Utilities Commission to closing the digital divide, promoting digital inclusion, and achieving digital equity. (2) Consortia require sufficient funding to engage all stakeholders pursuant to Section 281 of the Public Utilities Code, and to fulfill their roles in assisting the commission. (b) It is the intent of the Legislature that the commission establish rules and requirements to implement Section 281 of the Public Utilities Code and all moneys disbursed from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) and its accounts, as set forth in subdivision (c) of Section 281 of the Public Utilities Code, to optimize outcomes and results with metrics for performance and cost-effective use of CASF moneys. SEC. 3. Section 281 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read: 281. (a) The commission shall develop, implement, and administer the California Advanced Services Fund to encourage deployment of high-quality advanced communications services to all Californians that will promote economic growth, job creation, and the substantial social benefits of advanced information and communications technologies, consistent with this section and with the statements of intent in Section 2 of the Internet for All Now Act (Chapter 851 of the Statutes of 2017). (b) (1) (A) The goal of the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account is, no later than December 31, 2032, to approve funding for infrastructure projects that will provide broadband access to no less than 98 percent of California households in each consortia region, as identified by the commission. The commission shall be responsible for achieving the goals of the program. (B) For purposes of the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account, both of the following definitions apply: (i) “Mbps” means megabits per second. (ii) (I) Except as provided in subclause (II), “unserved area” means an area for which there is no facility-based broadband provider offering at least one tier of broadband service at speeds of at least 25 mbps downstream, 3 mbps upstream, and a latency that is sufficiently low to allow real-time interactive applications, considering updated federal and state broadband mapping data. (II) For projects funded, in whole or in part, from moneys received from the federal Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, “unserved area” means an area in which no facility-based broadband provider offers broadband service at speeds consistent with the standards established by the Federal Communications Commission pursuant to In the Matter of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, WC Docket No. 19-126, Report and Order, FCC 20-5 (adopted January 30, 2020, and released February 7, 2020), or as it may be later modified by the Federal Communications Commission. (2) In approving infrastructure projects funded through the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account, the commission shall do both of the following: (A) Approve projects that provide last-mile broadband access to households that are unserved by an existing facility-based broadband provider. (B) (i) Prioritize projects in unserved areas where internet connectivity is available only at speeds at or below 10 mbps downstream and 1 mbps upstream or areas with no internet connectivity. (ii) This subparagraph does not prohibit the commission from approving funding for projects outside of the areas specified in clause (i). (3) Moneys appropriated for purposes of this section may be used to match or leverage federal moneys for communications infrastructure, digital equity, and adoption, including, but not limited to, moneys from the United States Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, the United States Department of Agriculture ReConnect Loan and Grant Program, and the Federal Communications Commission for communications infrastructure, digital equity, and adoption. (4) The commission shall transition California Advanced Services Fund program methodologies to provide service to serviceable locations and evaluate other program changes to align with other funding sources, including, but not limited to, funding locations. (5) The commission shall maximize investments in new, robust, and scalable infrastructure and use California Advanced Services Fund moneys to leverage federal and non-California Advanced Services Fund moneys by undertaking activities, including, but not limited to, all of the following: (A) Providing technical assistance to local governments and providers. (B) Assisting in developing grant applications. (C) Assisting in preparing definitive plans for deploying necessary infrastructure in each county, including coordination across contiguous counties. (6) Moneys appropriated for purposes of this section may be used to fund projects that deploy broadband infrastructure to unserved nonresidential facilities used for local and state emergency response activities, including, but not limited to, fairgrounds. (c) The commission shall establish the following accounts within the fund: (1) The Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account. (2) The Rural and Urban Regional Broadband Consortia Grant Account. (3) The Broadband Public Housing Account. (4) The Broadband Adoption Account. (5) The Federal Funding Account. (d) (1) The commission shall transfer the moneys received by the commission from the surcharge the commission may impose pursuant to paragraph (4) to fund the accounts to the Controller for deposit into the California Advanced Services Fund. (2) All interest earned on moneys in the fund shall be deposited into the fund. (3) The commission may make recommendations to the Legislature regarding appropriations from the California Advanced Services Fund and the accounts established pursuant to subdivision (c). (4) For the period described in Section 281.1, the commission may collect a sum not to exceed one hundred fifty million dollars ($150,000,000) per year. (e) All moneys in the California Advanced Services Fund, including moneys in the accounts within the fund, shall be available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the commission for the California Advanced Services Fund program administered by the commission pursuant to this section, including the costs incurred by the commission in developing, implementing, and administering the program and the fund. (f) In administering the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account, the commission shall do all of the following: (1) The commission shall award grants from the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account on a technology-neutral basis, taking into account the useful economic life of capital investments, and including both wireline and wireless technology. (2) The commission shall consult with regional consortia, stakeholders, local governments, existing facility-based broadband providers, and consumers regarding unserved areas and cost-effective strategies to achieve the broadband access goal through public workshops conducted at least annually no later than April 30 of each year. (3) The commission shall identify unserved rural and urban areas and delineate the areas in the annual report prepared pursuant to Section 914.7. (4) An existing facility-based broadband provider may, but is not required to, apply for funding from the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account to make an upgrade pursuant to this subdivision. (5) Projects eligible for grant awards shall deploy infrastructure capable of providing broadband access at speeds of a minimum of 100 mbps downstream and 20 mbps upstream, or the most current broadband definition speed standard set by the Federal Communications Commission from time to time, as determined appropriate by the commission, whichever broadband access speed is greater, to unserved areas or unserved households. (6) (A) An individual household or property owner shall be eligible to apply for a grant to offset the costs of connecting the household or property to an existing or proposed facility-based broadband provider. Any infrastructure built to connect a household or property with funds provided under this paragraph shall become the property of, and part of, the network of the facility-based broadband provider to which it is connected. (B) (i) In approving a project pursuant to this paragraph, the commission shall consider limiting funding to households based on income so that funds are provided only to households that would not otherwise be able to afford a line extension to the property, limiting the amount of grants on a per-household basis, and requiring a percentage of the project to be paid by the household or the owner of the property. (ii) The aggregate amount of grants awarded pursuant to this paragraph shall not exceed five million dollars ($5,000,000). (7) An entity that is not a telephone corporation shall be eligible to apply to participate in the program administered by the commission pursuant to this section to provide access to broadband to an unserved area if the entity otherwise meets the eligibility requirements and complies with program requirements established by the commission. (8) The commission shall provide each applicant, and any party challenging an application, the opportunity to demonstrate actual levels of broadband service in the project area, which the commission shall consider in reviewing the application. (9) The commission shall establish a service list of interested parties to be notified of any California Advanced Services Fund applications. Any application and any amendment to an application for project funding shall be served to those on the service list and posted on the commission’s internet website at least 30 days before publishing the corresponding draft resolution. (10) A grant awarded pursuant to this subdivision may include funding for the following costs consistent with paragraph (5): (A) Costs directly related to the deployment of infrastructure. (B) Costs to lease access to property or for internet backhaul services for a period not to exceed five years. (C) Costs incurred by an existing facility-based broadband provider to upgrade its existing facilities to provide for interconnection. (11) The commission may award grants to fund all or a portion of the project. The commission shall determine, on a case-by-case basis, the level of funding to be provided for a project and shall consider factors that include, but are not limited to, the location and accessibility of the area, the existence of communication facilities that may be upgraded to deploy broadband, and whether the project makes a significant contribution to achievement of the program goal. (g) (1) (A) Moneys in the Rural and Urban R [Text truncated for display. 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