By Kelley Downes
On August 28, 2025, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued Decision 25-08-050 in Rulemaking 20-02-008 to approve a three-year, voluntary, technology-neutral, Home Broadband Pilot program. The program will allow eligible households to apply the California LifeLine subsidy to any internet plan that meets the minimum service standards.
The Moore Universal Telephone Service Act (Moore Act) established the California LifeLine Program. California LifeLine provides low-income households with discounts on home phone and cell phone services. Additionally, California Lifeline offers service providers a subsidy reimbursement for their participation in the program. While the Moore Act was enacted to increase access to reliable and affordable telephone services for California residents, the CPUC and the California Legislature expanded California LifeLine to include broadband services.
In January 2022, the federal government created the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) to increase broadband access for low-income households across the United States. California households and service providers engaged extensively in the ACP. However, on June 1, 2024, the ACP ended due to a lack of funding from Congress. Consequently, on April 16, 2025, Commissioner Reynolds issued a ruling to request comments on strategies to address the home broadband adoption gap. Attached to this ruling was a report detailing the growing number of low-income households in California without access to broadband services. The report also highlighted the importance of broadband services for teleworking, online education, civic participation, and access to public safety resources. Finally, the report posed the question of whether California LifeLine should support a pilot program to subsidize home broadband service.
As a result, the CPUC in D.25-08-050 authorized a Home Broadband Pilot program. The Pilot program will subsidize any approved standalone or bundled home broadband plan from participating providers that offer 100/20 Mbps service with at least 1,280 GB of data. The subsidy amounts are: $20 for broadband service, $30 for broadband service bundled with a wireline or wireless voice service, and up to $39 in reimbursement for new connections, once per year per household. Comments were filed on August 14, 2025, by AT&T, CTIA, Verizon, NaLA, and several other organizations. Reply comments were filed on August 19, 2025, by AT&T, CTIA, Verizon, and several other organizations. AT&T, CTIA, and Verizon all expressed concerns about the lack of a Pilot budget. The CPUC responded to these concerns by explaining that setting a budget at this early stage would be nearly impossible because the CPUC does not know how many providers will choose to participate in the Pilot program or how many eligible households will choose to participate.
CPUC President, Alice Reynolds, said “[b]roadband is essential for work, school, health, and safety.” She continued, “[t]his pilot program will play a key role in achieving the goal of connecting Californians.”