Californians who live in areas with no telephone service could start hearing dial tones, if Assemblywoman Patty Berg has anything to say about it.
Berg, D-Eureka, is proposing to add two years to the life of the state's Rural Telecommunications Grant Program. If everything falls into place, Berg's bill could benefit people who live in the most isolated parts of Mendocino County.
"The benefit to this (bill) is that the program didn't get off to a fair start," said Will Shuck, a Berg spokesman. "It was kind of strangled in infancy."
The rural telecom grant program was established in 2001, but budget shortages cut off funding for it. Last year, the funding was restored.
Last week, Berg sent the bill to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger received a flurry of bills at the close of the legislative session, so he has not taken action yet on Berg's proposal.
A statewide 2.6-percent surcharge on telephone service generates the money for the grant program. The $10 milion for the fund comes out of a pool of hundreds of millions.
The program benefits low-income residents in rural areas, where telephone service is spotty or non-existent. Sparsely populated areas often go without phones because commercial companies have little financial incentive to enter the market there.
This is where the rural telecom program comes into play. Local governments in remote parts of the state can qualify for grant money to build telephone infrastructure. As of June, three California counties -- Placer, Trinity and Humboldt -- had been awarded grants.
The program gives grant recipients the flexibility of deciding between land lines or a wireless network.
Trinity County chose the latter option. Working with Cal-One Cellular, an affiliate of Etna-based Siskyou Telephone, the county put up 10 cell towers. The towers are spread throughout the county to provide maximum coverage.
"It takes a little doing to find the optimum location to serve a whole community with just one cell tower," said Jim Lowers, the president of Siskiyou Telephone. "In the case of Trinity County, all it (took) is one county staffer, and away they went."
Lowers said it's a challenge to operate any telecom technology in a remote area, but it is possible.
Berg said her bill removes some of the legislative barriers to rural phone service. Geographic barriers are tougher to overcome.
Mendocino County is predominantly rural, and parts of it are among the most inaccessible places in California. For those reasons, Berg listed Mendocino as one of the counties that would benefit from the proposed legislation.
According to a 2001 state auditor's report, an estimated 112,000 Californians live in areas with no access to telephone service. Figures broken down by county were unavailable.
Based on the criteria of the U.S. Census Bureau, though, roughly 56,000 of the county's inhabitants are considered rural residents.
If the rural telecom bill passes, the corresponding grant program would run through 2008.
With the future of the entire program still uncertain, though, any possibility of extending phone service in Mendocino County is simultaneously on hold.