CenturyLink’s purchase of Level 3 Communications appears ready to sail through to approval by the California Public Utilities Commission later this morning. The proposed decision, drafted by CPUC administrative law judge Regina DeAngelis, was still on the consent agenda as of last night. That means no commissioner wants to talk about it or hold it for consideration at a later meeting.
That’s not a guarantee of approval today – commissioners can put a hold on the decision or pull it off the consent agenda for discussion during the meeting. But odds are it’ll be one of a dozen or so items that’ll be disposed of in a single batch vote, without comment.
DeAngelis posted a revised version of her draft decision yesterday afternoon. It only contains relatively minor edits, and a new warning to CenturyLink that approval “is granted subject to…continued cooperation with Commission Staff Data Requests relating to their facilities”.
What the decision doesn’t do is impose swingeing requirements for network expansion, as unsuccessfully demanded by the California Emerging Technology Fund. It does approve a settlement CenturyLink reached with old school consumer advocacy groups that’s largely meaningless, particularly in regards preventing or mitigating the damage the deal will do to California’s wholesale broadband market.
CenturyLink and Level 3 are two of maybe four major fiber network operators between major Californian cities, and Level 3 is the only one with dark fiber leasing built into its business model. Opportunities to lease dark fiber from CenturyLink, let alone AT&T and Verizon, are vanishingly rare.
Fortunately, the federal justice department did not outsource its investigation to advocacy groups. It’s requiring CenturyLink to give up control of 24 strands of fiber on key routes, including five in California, and turn them over to a bona fide dark fiber company, at a price and on strict terms.
Assuming CPUC approval comes today, the only remaining hurdle is a final blessing from the Federal Communications Commission. That seems likely to come soon. The FCC notified CenturyLink that it was restarting its informal shot clock, with the countdown nominally ending on Monday.