The big broadband news will be coming from the FCC later this morning (although there won’t be much, if anything, that’s actually new). But the California Public Utilities Commission is also meeting today, with a handful of broadband-related issues to decide.
One of the resolutions up for a vote would slap down a request from the CPUC’s office of ratepayer advocates to take another look at how cable companies are (not) held accountable under California’s statewide franchising law. A cable company’s statewide franchise comes up for review every ten years, but it’s done behind closed doors and renewal is effectively automatic. ORA wanted the CPUC to reconsider that gift, but did not convince the commissioner who wrote the draft – Clifford Rechtschaffen – that there was good reason to do so.
Another draft resolution begins the process of bringing the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband subsidy program into line with changes dictated by assembly bill 1665, which was signed into law earlier this year. AB 1665 gave AT&T and Frontier Communications a privileged place at the head of the subsidy line, and the resolution that’s likely to be approved today fills in some of the details, but leaves hard questions for later. Like whether Frontier or AT&T should be held accountable for making false promises about where and how they’ll upgrade broadband infrastructure.
There are also three housekeeping items, involving the technicalities of the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). One reinstates a tax on phone bills – also authorised by AB 1665 – to collect the money that’ll be funnelled to Frontier and AT&T. The other two are about due diligence – financial reporting rules for regional broadband consortia and waiving a performance bond requirement for a grant recipient that gained CPUC certification instead.
There’s not much suspense about the outcome today, either in Washington, D.C. or in San Francisco. All five broadband items are on the CPUC’s consent agenda and, absent objection from a commissioner, will slide through without discussion.