TRUCKEE, Calif. — Nevada County has received $497,799 in technical assistance grants for local agencies from the California Public Utilities Commission. The grant will provide broadband network design and engineering throughout rural Nevada County, accelerating the construction of fiber-to-the-home and business networks to other unserved communities over the next several years.
“This grant will help put us on the front lines with competitive shovel-ready projects as state and federal broadband construction grants are released,” said Steve Monaghan, Chief Information Officer of the Nevada County.
The LATA grant is part of California’s broadband legislation, SB 156, to invest $6 billion in fiber infrastructure expansion and equitable high-speed Internet access for families and businesses.
“Identifying and designing broadband solutions in the most needed areas of the county brings us one step closer to our goal of ensuring that every county resident has high-speed Internet service,” adds Monaghan.
Due to extreme topography and low population density, fiber-to-the-home construction has traditionally been prohibitively expensive in many rural parts of Nevada County. This pre-development work will help ISPs build projects that deliver affordable, reliable, and durable broadband networks that can scale to meet future technology needs.
Nevada County Broadband Strategy
Broadband became a goal of the council in 2021. The council continues to seek initiatives and solutions to support economic development, remote learning, telecommuting, telemedicine and public safety, and improve quality of life daily life of Nevada County citizens. Current policies and initiatives include:
- Nevada County’s award-winning Last Mile Grant program to complete connections to residents’ homes
- A Dig-Once policy to reduce future broadband infrastructure costs during ongoing projects
- A county-wide environmental impact report for broadband so individual fiber projects can take advantage of state and federal grant funding programs
- Advocate for broadband in Nevada County and rural California through the Golden State Connect Authority Learn more and subscribe to broadband updates at http://www.NevadaCountyCA.gov/Broadband.