Two nuggets of broadband policy gold offered to Trump administration

12 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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It’s in there somewhere.

So as not to throw the baby out with the bathwater (although it’s a small baby in an ocean of bathwater), it’s worth highlighting a couple of genuine wins in the last gasp “progress report” from the Obama administration’s federal broadband opportunity council.

The acknowledgement by the federal economic development agency (EDA) that broadband infrastructure is eligible for grant funding is particularly valuable, since it’s backed up with cash. EDA is now encouraging local agencies to “incorporate broadband investments (if applicable) into their regional economic development strategies along with other assets such as transportation infrastructure, energy, land use, etc.”… More

Too little, too late from the federal broadband opportunity council

11 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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Received and filed.

It’s called a progress report, but there’s not much progress to report. And the safe bet is that the federal broadband opportunity council will go into hibernation, rather than continue with whatever progress it might have made. Nevertheless, the council published a valediction of its efforts as the Trump administration was walking in the door.

The council was formed in 2015, following Barack Obama’s community-broadband-king-for-a-day speech in Iowa in January of that year.… More

CPUC broadband subsidy skepticism grows, grants on hold

10 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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A proposal to build a 300 mile middle mile fiber network connecting remote communities in northern California to high speed Internet access might or might not be in line for extra cash. The Digital 299 project would go through the mountainous terrain along state route 299 from Redding in the Sacramento Valley, through Trinity County and on to Eureka on the Humboldt County coast.

Yesterday, the California Public Utilities Commission weighed a recommendation from staff for a $41 million subsidy from the California Advanced Services Fund against pleas from local communities along the proposed route for an extra $6 million that they believe is necessary to make the project financially viable.… More

Initial Charlottesville FTTH share pegged at a realistic 20%

9 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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Click for more details.

Ting, a fiber to the home overbuilder, expects its take rate in Charlottesville, Virginia to hit the 20% mark in its first year, and keep growing from there. That’s based on the initial response to its build out, which is very much guided by the level of interest that residents show, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of Ting’s corporate parent’s latest earnings call (h/t to Sean Buckley at FierceTelecom for the pointer).… More

Cable, mobile companies fight California rural phone standards

8 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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A California Public Utilities Commission decision slamming the practices of telecoms companies in rural areas – like attaching lines to trees instead of poles – and requiring carriers to notify both the commission and the state office of emergency services when significant telephone outages occur has been met with a broadly based challenge from California cable and telephone companies.

In a filing authored by Comcast lawyers and joined by Charter, Cox, small telcos, Verizon’s fiber subsidiary and lobbying fronts for the cable and mobile industries, the CPUC’s rural call completion decision was characterised as illegal on the basis of a long list of alleged procedural mistakes.… More

CPUC set to reject cable's bid for wireless privileges

7 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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Decision on the way.

Update: the CPUC unanimously approved the draft decision at its 9 February 2017 meeting.

It’s a bit softer than the total smack down that was originally floated, but the latest draft of a decision that’ll go in front of the California Public Utilities Commission still says that cable companies can’t hang wireless equipment on utility poles with the same carefree abandon as mobile carriers. The reasoning is that the laws that grant cable companies the special privilege to use utility poles and such without having to meet the same standards of service or conduct as telephone companies specifically mention wires, not wireless, and that “if the legislature had intended to provide CATV corporations with a right to attach wireless facilities to utility poles – either by statute or by commission regulations – the legislature would have done so”.… More

Net neutrality on a fast track to oblivion at FCC

6 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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No doubt about intentions.

In his short time as Federal Communications Commission chairman, Ajit Pai hasn’t actually said he’s going to scrap the 2015 decision to classify broadband as a common carrier service, and with it the network neutrality rules that depend on it. But in comments he made last week and in the substance of his big news dump on Friday, it’s clear that he’s moving quickly in that direction.

Among the actions announced late Friday afternoon was the cancellation of investigations into the zero rating practices of AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and T-Mobile.… More

FCC chair Pai buries transparency pledge with a big dump

5 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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Under orders from new republican chairman Ajit Pai, Federal Communications Commission staff issued orders and sent letters rescinding several recent actions on Friday afternoon. In what democratic commissioner Mignon Clyburn blasted as a “Friday news dump” and Pai praised as “revoking midnight regulations”, the FCC cancelled or pulled back…

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Charter is ripping off Internet subscribers, says NY attorney general

4 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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Time Warner Cable executives deliberately under provisioned and over promised Internet service to its subscribers in the State of New York and Charter Communications is allowing the practice to continue, claims New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman in a lawsuit filed earlier this week. It’s a follow on to an investigation kicked off in 2015.

Charter purchased TWC in May 2016. It took over operation of systems and customer equipment that couldn’t delivered speeds that were advertised or that customers purchased and “even now, [Charter] continues to offer Internet speeds that we found they cannot reliably deliver”, Schneiderman alleges.… More

FCC backs away from market intervention, consumer roles

3 February 2017 by Steve Blum
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Goodbye to all that.

Wholesale broadband prices won’t be regulated and there will be no committees deciding which apps can bypass set top boxes and directly access cable company bit streams. That’s the practical effect of the decision by new Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai to pull two controversial proposed rules off of the list of items on circulation and under active consideration by commissioners.

Rules that would have set rates for some wholesale services and allow consumers to watch video programming on their own devices without renting a set top box were on the FCC’s agenda last fall, and nearly came to a vote.… More