Surfnet Communications

Surfnet recently won a $24 million competitive grant from the California Public Utilities Commission to continue building more high-speed, fiber broadband connections in the Santa Cruz Mountains and along the Central Coast.

The benefits of those grants aren’t just faster internet speeds. We create jobs right here in our community. Surfnet’s employees live here and shop locally. This new grant enables us to continue expanding the Surfnet team. In the weeks and months ahead, we plan to hire more members to work on our sales team or serve as splicers who build out our infrastructure. Surfnet employees have been essential as we connect many miles of fiber wires throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains. This work is complex and detail-oriented, requiring time to survey the roads and determine the best strategy for building fiber infrastructure. The result of that hard work: a fiber internet connection that delivers fast and reliable internet speeds to residents in rural Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties.

Surfnet Fiber can increase download speeds by up to 1,000 percent, and upload speeds—used for video calls—can increase by as much as 3,330 percent. The work funded by this latest grant is slated to begin later this year, with the majority of the work happening between Highway 9 and Bear Creek Road, along Highway 35.

Surfnet also won a separate $9.2 million grant to bring Surfnet fiber to Santa Barbara County. This latest grant brings Surfnet’s total grant wins to more than $55 million. Residents and business owners interested in fiber availability at their address can visit our website at surfnetc.com to learn more about construction timelines and service areas. Call 831-439- 7873 ext. 747 for more information.