HSU Awarded $500k to Close Digital Divide

Pictured are Broadband Taskforce participants, Peter Pennekamp, Executive Director, Humboldt Area Foundation, Member RCRA; Sunne Wright McPeak, President and CEO, California Emerging Technology Fund; Steve Karp, Redwood Coast Connect Project Manager; Connie Stewart, Member Redwood Coast Rural Action; Rollin Richmond, President, Humboldt State University, Member RCRA.

Arcata-- Humboldt State University (HSU), partnership with Redwood Coast Rural Action (RCRA), has been awarded $500,000 for a prototype project to attract broadband service into every Redwood Coast community in the four-county region.

In 2004, RCRA, in collaboration with the Redwood Technology Consortium and the REdwood Region Economic Development Commission, made broadband a top priority and convened a collaborative of all sectors in the region, from business to environment, ranching to Indian tribes and agriculture to educators.

The Redwood Coast counties--Humboldt, Mendocino, Trinity and Del Norte--will be the first in the state to prototype a project that demonstartes and records significant and growing demand for broadband services in rural regions. The Californai Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) is providing a $250,000 match in partnership with a consortium of regional fund providers including including the Headwaters Fund, Mel and Grace McLean Foundation, Humboldt Area Foundation, Redwood Region Economic Development Commission, the counties and others for the the Redwood Coast inititative.

The partnership vision is to secure ubiquitous broadband access for rural communities. The goal of the project is to lay the foundation to attract deployment of broadband infrastructure into the region. The grant will help identify and aggregate demand that attracts private providers to un-served and underserved communities, and engages the industry in discussions about preferred infrastructure scenarios. The project will build on and accelerate regional conversations about broadband expansion. The study outcomes will also recommend a standard set of municipal broadband and infrastructure policies.

For more information about the broadband project, go to http://redwoodcoastconnect.humboldt.edu or call the Redwood Coast Connect office at (707) 826-3919