Memorandum
Date: August 18, 2026
To: The Honorable Brad Rasmussen, Chair, Lake County Board of Supervisors
From: Susan Parker, County Administrative Officer
Benjamin Rickleman, Deputy County Administrative Officer
Subject: Consideration of Informational Update on Broadband Infrastructure Programs
Executive Summary:
This item provides the Board with a status update on the three broadband programs now committed to Lake County. The Middle-Mile Broadband Network will provide an open access backhaul network that local internet services providers can interconnect at wholesale prices, FFA will provide the first fiber-to-the-premise service to households in select areas in Lake County, and BEAD will provide the option of internet service at least 100 megabytes per second (Mbps) download and 20 Mbps upload for select residents.
On July 17, 2026, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) approved California’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Final Proposal, which had been restructured to conform to the Administration’s BEAD Restructuring Policy. With that approval, all three programs that will shape broadband deployment in Lake County have cleared their federal approval milestones: BEAD, the State’s Last Mile Federal Funding Account (FFA), and the State’s Middle-Mile Broadband Network. The Middle-Mile Broadband Network and the FFA projects are awaiting completion of permitting and construction, and BEAD requires final approval by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), currently anticipated on September 17, 2026, before subgrantees can move into permitting and construction.
BEAD is the largest of the three programs and the one most changed by recent federal action. California’s allocation was unchanged by NTIA’s approval, with more than $1.5 billion directed to deployment, but the restructured program eliminated the non-statutory requirements the State had originally adopted and replaced them with a technology-neutral framework scored primarily on minimal BEAD program outlay. Fiber, hybrid fiber-coaxial, fixed wireless, and satellite were each evaluated against the same statutory 100/20 Mbps test. In Lake County, 2,228 of the county’s 33,834 broadband-serviceable locations appear on the CPUC’s BEAD served-locations list, spread across seven deployment projects held by six subgrantees; 1,989 of those locations (89.3 percent) are classified as unserved and 239 (10.7 percent) as underserved. Satellite carries the great majority of that footprint. Amazon holds 1,471 locations and Starlink 96, for a combined 1,567 locations, or roughly 70 percent of the county total, with Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake at 342, AT&T at 138, Valley Internet at 109, and Trellis Communications at 72.
Running in parallel, the CPUC approved Resolution T-17873 on January 30, 2025, awarding up to $14,648,581 from the Federal Funding Account for three fiber projects in Lake County covering an estimated 2,161 unserved locations and an estimated unserved population of 4,346, with roughly 6,947 residents benefiting overall. Mediacom’s build is the largest at 1,037 locations primarily in Spring Valley and smaller pockets around Clear Lake, followed by AT&T’s Lake-1 at 620 locations and Lake-1E at 504 locations. All three remain in the pre-construction phase. Because FFA project areas were treated as enforceable commitments and excluded from BEAD eligibility, the two programs should not overlap, which puts the combined committed footprint of FFA and BEAD in Lake County at roughly 4,389 locations.
Affordability obligations differ meaningfully between the two last-mile programs. Under BEAD, every subgrantee must offer at least one low-cost service option of at least 100/20 Mbps and maintain it for the full ten-year federal interest period, but NTIA’s Policy Notice barred the CPUC from setting that rate; the price is whatever each subgrantee proposed, which ranges from
$30 - $80 per month in Lake County, and eligibility tracks federal Lifeline qualification, which is household income at or below 135% of the federal poverty guidelines or program participation: Medicaid; SNAP; Supplemental Security Income; Federal Public Housing Assistance; or the Veterans and Survivors Pension Benefit.
The FFA, by contrast, locks in actual prices. AT&T must offer Access from AT&T at $30 per month for 100/100 Mbps service to households qualifying through SNAP, SSI, the National School Lunch Program or Head Start, or income below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. Mediacom must offer Connect2Compete at $14.95 per month for 25/3 Mbps to households with a K-12 student on free or reduced lunch, along with a $40 per month 100/20 Mbps low-cost plan whose price it committed to hold for ten years.
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Recommended Action: This item is informational only; no action is requested.