More California regional broadband consortia funded

12 November 2016 by Steve Blum
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Click to see the previous boundaries.

Three regional broadband consortia were approved for funding by the California Public Utilities Commission this week. That brings the total to nine, with three more queued up for next month’s meeting. Here’s how it lines up…

Approved on 10 November 2016:

  • Gold Country Broadband Consortium, $300,000 over two years. Covers Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado and a part of Alpine counties, except for the Tahoe Basin area, which [has its own, separate consortium]().
… More

Update: Pai can keep FCC seat through 2017

11 November 2016 by Steve Blum
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I made a mistake about FCC terms in this story (click here). FCC commissioners can stay in office for up to two years after their terms expire (until “the expiration of the next session of Congress subsequent to the expiration of said fixed term of office”). That changes Ajit Pai’s position – he’s good through 2017 unless a replacement is appointed – and extends Mignon Clyburn’s and Tom Wheeler’s potential terms through 2019. That changes the chess board a bit, but not the main point of the story: Wheeler is out as chairman in January and must resign before the end of the year if Rosenworcel is to continue as a commissioner.

Status quo for broadband policy in Sacramento

11 November 2016 by Steve Blum
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Bradford is back.

There’s no predicting what impact the political upheaval in Washington, D.C. will have on broadband policy and development, but there’s likely to be little change here in California as a result of Tuesday’s election.

The one significant change that was at stake in Sacramento was a possible democratic supermajority in the California legislature. Votes will continue to be counted until Monday, but at this point it appears that democrats will have a supermajority in the assembly, but not in the senate.… More

Wheeler's FCC agenda hits the wall in December

10 November 2016 by Steve Blum
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If he doesn’t pull the trigger, someone will do it for him.

The Federal Communications Commission will look a lot different come January, as chairman Tom Wheeler either resigns or is shoved aside. With a republican president set to take office, the priority will be to clear enough seats on the five member commission to give the new administration a three-vote majority.

Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel will be out of a job at the end of year, unless the republican-led senate votes to confirm her.… More

Incumbents' coalition of the unwilling fights fiber disclosure rule

9 November 2016 by Steve Blum
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But if you really don’t know, click here and we’ll tell you.

Broadband is outside the jurisdiction of the California Public Utilities Commission, and it has no business investigating competition – or the lack thereof – among Internet service providers. That’s the basic reaction from a “Respondent Coalition” of incumbent telephone and cable companies to a proposed CPUC decision that slams the lack of broadband competition in California and would take a few, small steps toward opening the market.… More

Don't make U.S. telecoms market failure worse, says The Economist

8 November 2016 by Steve Blum
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Land of the rent-seekers and home of high prices.

AT&T should not be allowed to purchase Time Warner, according to a pointed editorial in The Economist. AT&T’s monopoly power in some market segments and its cozy duopolies in others already gives it too much control over what people in the U.S. can see, how much they have to pay and how much money gets stuffed in the pockets of politicians, says the London-based newspaper and free market advocate…

There are two reasons why trustbusters should now take a tougher line.

… More

CenturyLink deal means higher prices for Californian consumers, businesses

7 November 2016 by Steve Blum
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Four into three equals market domination.

Expect to pay higher prices for broadband service – residential, commercial and industrial class alike – if CenturyLink is allowed to buy Level 3, the major independent fiber operator in the U.S., as recently proposed. That’s the picture you get when you connect the dots of a draft decision regarding the state of telecommunications competition which is currently on the table at the California Public Utilities Commission.

You don’t have to connect many dots.… More

Upload speed matters and it's too slow, say consumers

6 November 2016 by Steve Blum
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Minimum acceptable upload speed.
Consumer upload speed expectations exceed the ability of Internet service providers to deliver, at least in Morgan Hill, a town on the southern edge of Silicon Valley. Tellus Venture Associates just completed an analysis of Morgan Hill’s telecommunications infrastructure, which was presented to the city council last Wednesday.
In the course of doing that study, we conducted an online consumer survey that attracted more than 500 responses. One of the questions we asked was “what do you consider to be the minimum acceptable upload speed for Internet service?”… More

Frontier pays a price for its California meltdown

5 November 2016 by Steve Blum
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Frontier Communications’ cutover problems when it took control of Verizon’s wireline systems in California, Texas and Florida were costly, in terms of broadband subscribers and overall revenue. On Frontier’s third quarter earnings call earlier this week, company executives said that they saw a net loss of 100,000 broadband customers in the three states between April and June, and lost another 75,000 from July through September.

In revenue terms, though, the biggest hit in California and the other two states came from phone and video customers: total revenue was down $55 million in the third quarter, compared to the second, with video services accounting for $24 million and phone service for another $20 million.… More

Consumers must have clear choices under new broadband privacy rules

4 November 2016 by Steve Blum
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Gobbledygook not allowed.

The Federal Communications Commission has finally published the actual privacy rules for Internet service providers it approved at last week’s meeting. In more than 200 tightly packed pages, the FCC tries to offer detailed definitions of what kind of information ISPs can’t share or use without explicit, opt-in approval from customers, what kind is usable with assumed, opt-out permission, and what kind is exempt from either.

There’s a big loophole that the FCC only partially closes: charging customers different prices based on whether or not they give up their privacy rights.… More