Race provided ten letters of support for the Gigafy Mono project. A support letter from the Board of Supervisors of Mono County expressed concern that students in rural communities need reliable high speed Internet to receive access to equal educational opportunities and access healthcare services. Their letter also indicates a recent wildfire event that caused loss of Verizon Wireless service and three days of communication collapse for the communities in Mono County. However, the network and internet service that were on Digital 395 remained functional and first responders were able to use the network for relief communication. The letter also expressed the need for redundant and independent communication services as a matter of vital importance for potential similar situations that may occur in the region. In addition, a petition signed by eighty-six Mono County, Sierra Paradise Estates residents requests that the Commission ensure that the community “receives the same reliable, quality phone/internet service as other rural California communities.” A support letter from the Mono Basin Regional Planning Advisory Committee (RPAC) expressed similar support for the project stating that they lack high speed internet access. Similarly, the Commission received letters from individuals from rural area of Benton, and the Swall Meadows area who complain that the internet service is slow during the peak hours. They also complain that there are no other internet providers that provide fast internet access. The Commission also received letters of complaint about the Verizon service in the Swall Meadows area. Specifically, one letter states that “this service daily slows to an unusable speed during peak traffic hours.” Other letters make general complaints about slowness or lack of service in Swall Meadows and Benton. One letter requests that ”PUC not interpret mobile and wireless broadband as a substitution for physical connections but, instead, as a form of utilities infrastructure redundancy which make communications in small, dispersed, and isolated communities secure, reliable, and affordable.” Lastly, the Commission received letters of support from the residents of Lee Vining urging the Commission to not exclude Lee Vining from the proposed project area. These letters indicate the residential and business needs of the community and states that the current high price and limited bandwidth hampers the operation of the businesses. The CASF rules does not permit disbursement of grants to areas that are currently served irrespective of the technology. As discussed above, the Lee Vining areas of the proposed project show wireless broadband availability at served speed. As such, CD cannot
APPENDIX A Resolution T- 17477 Race Telecommunication, Inc., Gigafy Mono Project Key Information Project Name Race Telecommunication, Inc., Gigafy Mono Project Project Plan To deploy fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) Last Mile network to serve 100% of the homes in a defined service area that includes South Chalfant, Benton, Benton Hot Springs, Swall Meadows, Lee Vining, and Mono City, California. Fiber based Internet speeds will offer packages including 1Gbps down and 1Gbps up. Download / upload 1Gbps/1Gbps Location South Chalfant, Benton, Benton Hot Springs , Swall Meadows, Lee Vining, and Mono City Community Name Mono County 60510001011 - 93512 $47,083 CBGs / Household Income/Zip Codes 60510001013 - $96,662 60510001011 - $47,083 60510001024 - 93541 $43,359 Pricing Plan Residential Business Deployment Schedule (from Commission approval date) 22 months With Lee Vining Without Lee Vining Project Size (in square miles) 6.33 5.6 Estimated Potential Household Subscriber Size 541 399 Cost Per Household $11,887 $13,893 Proposed Project Budget $11,920,715 $10,275,601 Amount of CASF Funds Requested (60% without CIAC) $ 6,430,884 $5,543,392 Internally funded (40%) $4,287,256 $3,695,595 CIAC (18.7% of CASF Funds Requested) $1,202,575 $1,036,614 Total Amount of CASF Award (includes CIAC) $7,633,459 $6,580,007