Amador County - Thousands more Mother Lode residents will now have high speed Internet access thanks to a $2.8 million California Public Utilities Commission grant. $2.7 million of that funding will go to Sonora-based Mother Lode Internet, who will in turn spend nearly $8 million over the next year and a half to build a high speed network utilizing pre-existing towers and frequencies. The Public Utility Commission, or CPUC, says the new, expanded network will provide Internet service to 14,629 households currently without access in Amador, Alpine, Calaveras, Mariposa and Tuolumne counties. “This fixed wireless broadband project shows tremendous innovation in bringing very fast broadband to…rural households in the Mother Lode region who have never had fast Internet access before," said CPUC Commissioner Rachelle Chong, a member of the state's Broadband Task Force. According to CPUC, the Mother Lode Broadband project will provide broadband service at an average speed of up to 14 mega bits per second for both download and upload. In December, 2007, the CPUC established a two-year, $100 million California Advanced Services Fund to provide 40 percent matching infrastructure grants to broadband providers who in turn put up matching grants of 60 percent. So far, $12.3 million in broadband infrastructure grants have been approved. Two other providers that lost out in the grant competition are also on board to provide experience and support. Golden State Cellular General Manager Dan Rule said his company will provide the region mobile broadband service before the end of the year. The CPUC estimates that nearly 2,000 California communities that are currently unserved and underserved by broadband. Story by Alex Lane This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.