Advocacy Letter

Vision

We the undersigned members of the Fresno Coalition for Digital Inclusion (FCDI) are deeply committed to Broadband for All with a special concern for the unserved and underserved in Fresno County. We are writing to advocate for equitable internet service that includes continuity of connectivity across peoples’ daily journeys enabling access to digital services like telehealth, education, and employment. We are also advocating for the inclusion of FCDI priorities for middle-mile, last-mile, and a regional interchange that will provide wholesale, low-latency internet to fuel economic development across our region.

FCDI members have been working to improve internet connectivity in our region for 15+ years. This collective wisdom resulted in the identification of areas needing last-mile service levels necessary for digital inclusion as well as the middle-mile routes necessary to serve these areas. These priorities are built upon knowledge of existing and planned internet routes and with a commitment to leverage and share assets to further the impact of limited investments.

We strongly support open access middle mile that reaches unserved and underserved households in urban areas of high poverty, multi-tenant complexes, and rural areas of low density. This strategy enables affordable last-mile services that can be quickly deployed like private LTE and fiber where economically feasible.

FCDI members are also committed to the critical work of providing support, training, and upskilling to ensure people can adopt and effectively use essential digital services.

Problem

• The CPUC maps and Preferred Scenarios guide the determination of investments in open access middle-mile routes that make possible new or improved last-mile services.
• Historically, FCC and CPUC maps relied on service delivery as self-reported by carriers. Congress’ DATA reform will improve FCC maps, and CPUC maps are better with CostQuest data. Still, FCC maps show less than 4,000 unserved in Fresno County (total population near 1 million) ¹, and CPUC maps show less than 5,000 underserved in the City of Fresno (population over 500,000). This incorrect data formed the basis of the CPUC Preferred Scenarios for the San Joaquin Valley.
• There is a data gap and underrepresentation of internet access that has not been acknowledged. This incomplete picture of on-the-ground reality will result in middle-mile routes that do not reach those most needing last-mile services. These communities include, both underserved and unserved, in urban areas of high poverty, low-income multi-dwelling units, and rural areas with low-density.

Solution

• Modern technology supports gathering peoples’ internet experience including speed, latency, carrier, and geographical coordinates.
• Using actual download speeds, Microsoft reported that 47.5% or about 478,000 people in Fresno County were not using the internet at 25Mbps or above. ²
• Fresno Unified and Fresno County Office of Education built the “myQoI” (My Quality of Internet) App to determine peoples’ actual internet access experience. ³
• Such modern data analytics coupled with FCDI members’ reports of connectivity problems show the significant underrepresentation of unserved and underserved people within the city of Fresno including urban areas of high poverty and multi-tenant complexes. It is at least 25,000 and probably as high as 75,000!

Action

We ask that you support

1. Comprehensive data gathering must ensure evidence-based, community-informed representation of the populations who are unserved or underserved.
2. Middle-Mile: middle-mile routes should reach unserved rural populations and bring open-access middle-mile to underserved areas of urban poverty and multi-dwelling units.
3. Last-Mile: solutions should fund affordable, fast deployment of services like LTE while bringing fiber where feasible.
4. Share internet assets where possible and stretch investment funds to reach those with unmet needs , both the unserved and underserved.
5. Reduce the equity gap for all by improving services for the underserved through competition and choice.
6. Build capacity and fund services that improve adoption with support and literacy training.

We ask you to partner with FCDI in this advocacy for the underrepresented and support our regional priorities by 1) sharing this letter with influencers and decision-makers, and 2) participating in our ongoing advocacy events.

This shared work is both urgent and ongoing. We cannot wait another 2-6 years to improve digital inclusion for all. Equitable access and adoption fuel economic growth, regional vitality, and well-being.

Sincerely,

The FCDI Leadership Council:

• City of Fresno, Bryon Horn and Paul Zhou
• Cradle to Career, Fresno County, Linda Gleason
• Fresno County, Bryan Burton
• Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, Raj Sra and Amber Jacobo
• Fresno Housing, Bobby Coulter
• Fresno Unified School District, Philip Neufeld
• San Joaquin Valley Regional Broadband Consortium, Eduardo Gonzalez
• State Center Community College District, Ben Seaberry and Kevin Miller
• The Children’s Movement, Mike Espinoza
• Valley Children’s Hospital, Kevin Shimamoto
• United Way of Fresno & Madera Counties, Lindsay Fox

Email copied to the following:

These documents were sent via email to the MMAC on February 2 and April 22:

• Charter for Fresno Coalition for Digital Inclusion
• FCDI Priorities and Values for Middle Mile and Last Mile for Fresno County
• FCDI CPUC Underrepresentation of Underserved

And these priorities were re-iterated via email on May 3.

¹ FCC Fourteenth Broadband report based on form 477 data from December 2019.

² From Microsoft analytics as of October 2020. For methodology see Microsoft US Broadband Usage Percentages. For visualizations see Microsoft PowerBi Broadband Availability.

³ myQoI is an open-source tool that runs on district-issued laptops to get speed of internet. See Fresno Unified myQoI on GitHub. This visualization shows where connections are less than 25Mbps.