Three matching broadband grants totaling nearly $27.8 million wer...

coast and in the state’s northeast. Two are conditional on the sponsors’ getting NTIA grants for most of the project costs. Besides creating jobs, the projects will “indicate how California and the federal government, working together and using stimulus funds, can greatly benefit our communities,” commission President Michael Peevey said. “Moving to quickly approve funding allows California to take advantage of federal stimulus funds.” He said the state stands to receive as much as $225.3 million in NTIA broadband money. The valley project proposes to build a wireless network for Fresno, Madera, Merced, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano and Stanislaus counties. Of a total cost approaching $79 million, the state grant will cover 10 percent, if the NTIA awards 80 percent of the total. The project envisions Wi-Fi and WiMAX delivering services including VoIP at speeds reaching 20 Mbps down and 6 up. The network could reach nearly 41,000 unserved households and more than 36,000 underserved households, the commission said. The project would create about 560 jobs, stimulate growth and improve Central Valley life, it said. California Valley Broadband, a consortium of Moreno Trenching, Mika Telecom Group and MT2 Telecom, formed in May 2009 to develop the project. The Northeastern California Broadband Project, by Broadband Associates International, would install 640 miles of fiber from an existing company backbone at State Highway 299. The service area would be about 6,000 square miles and would connect schools, colleges, health centers, businesses and residents in Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Lake, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Tehama and Yuba counties. To get the state’s 10 percent portion, which comes to slightly more than $18 million, Broadband Associates must land an 80 percent NTIA grant slightly exceeding $163.1 million. The project would connect 11 county offices of education, 599 K-12 schools, five community colleges and the California State University at Chico, along with libraries, health centers, businesses and residents, the commission said. The sponsor’s partners on the project are Level 3 Communications and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California’s California Research and Education Network. Verizon’s Sea Ranch Project would install new fiber in unserved and underserved portions of a 20-square-mile area in the Sea Ranch, Cazadero and Timber Cove areas on Sonoma County’s northern coast. The project, which will serve about 232 households in a community where the asking prices of homes for sale on one website run $519,000 to $1.7 million., envisions speeds of 7 Mbps download and 0.768 Mbps upload. No NTIA money is involved. The state’s 40 percent contribution is slightly more than $1.8 million.