This commentary was contributed by John Freeman, candidate for San Benito County Board of Supervisors District 2. The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent BenitoLink or other affiliated contributors. Submissions must follow BenitoLink’s Terms of Use. During campaign seasons, BenitoLink allows up to two submissions a month related to a particular candidate or measure such as an announcement of candidacy, platforms or endorsements. Submissions made by other agencies/groups endorsing candidates are counted toward the candidate’s/measure tally. If your submission has qualities we find self-Advertising or promotional in nature it may be edited (toned down) or not published at all. BenitoLink will not publish any campaign-related submissions after Feb. 26. E-mail Noe Magaña at noemagana@benitolink.com with questions. Lea este articulo en español aqui.

When I moved to San Juan Bautista, one of the first problems I encountered was poor internet service from the two franchise vendors. Since I worked in Silicon Valley, I knew that better service was possible. The service from Charter (now Spectrum) slowly improved while AT&T remained stuck with DSL service to the town. However, I knew that elsewhere independent Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) provided better speeds and better service to their consumers.  

After I was elected to the San Juan Bautista City Council, I more deeply researched the issue of internet access. In 2018, I invited Cruzio, an independent ISP from Santa Cruz, into city hall to discuss with me the possibility of having them provide internet service to San Juan Bautista. At that time, they were expanding their fiber optic network into the Watsonville area with great success. I was hoping for a similar situation here. They suggested a wireless “Fixed Radio” technology that could give faster speeds than what the two franchise ISP’s are providing. Fixed radio can now provide speeds up to 1 Gigabytes per second (Gbps). Unfortunately, Cruzio could not service San Juan Bautista at that time as they were busy with their Watsonville project. 

However, a few months later two other ISP’s, South Valley Internet Service and Etheric Networks appeared on the scene. While we were working on preparing contracts and agreements, COVID hit the nation, and suddenly internet access became even more critical to our society. Schools were often teaching and meeting via the Zoom app and that requires substantial bandwidth. Many people, especially low-income neighborhoods, did not have the means for $100 plus per month internet bills.  

This scenario was summed up with the picture of a young (4th or 5th grade) girl sitting at a Taco Bell in Salinas with her Chromebook valiantly trying to do her homework. Schools who started using the Zoom App to instruct children during a worldwide pandemic were having trouble reaching the students because their families had inadequate or no internet access available for their students. This inequity harmed the students who were most in need of receiving instruction. The internet is a crucial utility for our society, as important as electrical power. We need it to do our banking, shopping, communication, online newspapers, telehealth and on-line education. Business needs the internet for inventory control, credit card processing, payroll, ordering products, production control, facility management and many other uses. Our current lives literally depend on the internet.  

State law allows for two franchise enabled vendors to exist in a jurisdiction. This gives those ISP’s the rights (easements) to access power poles and other infrastructure to enable distribution of internet signals to homes and businesses. However, other ISP’s can compete, even without the use of power poles. Then we have the opportunity for real price competition. The winners are the consumers, citizens of this county, who win with lower prices and better service. 

To address this “Digital Divide” the city of San Juan Bautista provided antenna space for these two ISP’s at a very low price. This allowed one of the ISP’s to team up with the San Juan Bautista Rotary Club to form “Balanced Access,” a non-profit organization dedicated to giving high speed internet access to families with children who cannot afford it and who attend our local school district. This puts them on an equal footing for internet access with the other students who have internet access. The ability to access and research academic topics is all based on the internet. The ability to apply for jobs, apply for colleges, apply for grants and loans for colleges are all internet based. Children without internet access start behind their peers and struggle in school. Balanced Access is directly addressing this issue. I am proud to coordinate this solution to help many students on their way to a better education. The entire family benefits with better internet access when lots of things suddenly become possible. The middle class wins also with lower priced internet access due to competition among the ISPs. In a world where everything is going up in price, lower prices for a critical commodity is a welcome change. If elected, I will continue to do more work like this that directly benefits all of society, not just the few or the wealthy.