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OAKLAND, CA – Oakland City Council has formally received the Broadband Master Plan (BMP), which aims to help close the City’s digital divide by ensuring fast, affordable Internet access is available all residents, and the City is now proceeding with design and implementation of projects delivering on that goal.
Funded by a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) technical assistance grant, the City of Oakland Information Technology Department’s 2025 plan outlines how the City can use a $14 million grant it was recently awarded to construct broadband infrastructure to create a city-owned broadband network and public-private partnerships that center equity, affordability, and digital inclusion.
“Everyone in Oakland needs and deserves fast, affordable Internet access. It’s simply a core part of modern life, and no one should be excluded from having access to this basic service,” said Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee. “I’m proud of the City of Oakland staff and community partners who brought this plan to life and grateful to the California Public Utilities Commission for their partnership with the City of Oakland.”
“We are addressing the digital divide head-on,” said Tony Batalla, Oakland’s Chief Information Officer. “This plan presents how the City can play an active role in ensuring that every resident—regardless of neighborhood or income—can count on reliable, affordable Internet access as a basic right and modern utility.”
The plan highlights deep disparities in internet access across Oakland, particularly in West Oakland, Fruitvale, and Deep East Oakland. These gaps are the result of longstanding market failures—where monopolies dominate low-income areas, limiting service quality while keeping prices high. Key findings from the BMP include:
- 33,000+ Oakland households lack residential broadband.
- Internet affordability, availability, and performance are deeply intertwined barriers—not just isolated challenges.
- Communities of color and low-income families are disproportionately impacted by poor infrastructure and unaffordable rates.
- Low-income residents often pay high prices for slow, unreliable service—and those who pay more are not more satisfied.
At the heart of the plan is Oakland Connect, the City-led project to build a municipal broadband network using a hybrid public-private model. The City will own the infrastructure and partner with ISPs to offer:
- High-speed, free or low-cost residential Internet
- Increased competition in historically underserved neighborhoods
In July 2024, the CPUC awarded the City more than $14 million in grant funding to launch “Oakland Connect”—a project to bring high-speed broadband Internet service to more than 2,500 households in affordable housing communities and surrounding areas in West Oakland, Downtown, Fruitvale, and East Oakland. The City is also allocating $2 million from Measure U bond funding for a total investment of more than $16 million.
The plan guides the next steps of the Oakland Connect project, including construction of more than 12 miles of new City-owned fiber optics infrastructure; interconnections with the State of California’s Middle Mile Broadband network; and agreements with Oakland Housing Authority and other affordable housing providers in Oakland to connect to the new network. The construction project is currently in the design & engineering phase with a timeline to break ground by the end of this year. The plan calls for the network to be operational by 2027.
The plan also lays the groundwork to continue integrating other City-owned fiber optics infrastructure segments to create one seamless network that can be accessed through public-private partnerships to drive affordability and innovation, and expand access. The BMP isn’t just a plan—it’s a declaration that Oakland is ready to lead on digital equity.
The full plan is available online here.
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