California cable lobby wants neutral regulation and it should have it

30 August 2016 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Equally attached to unequal laws.

When the California Public Utilities Commission allowed mobile phone carriers the same freedom to install wireless equipment on utility poles that wireline companies enjoy, it encouraged cable and telcos to ask for the same deal. It inferred that the path to approval would be open if they didn’t get stroppy about fine print that was written when copper was all there was. Like pole attachment rates that assume a thin cable and not a fat box full of radio gear.… More

Utility reform game clock ticks down in Sacramento

29 August 2016 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

Final minutes of play.

With three days left in the legislative session, key California Public Utilities Commission reform bills are still pending and still subject to haggling over final language.

The big one is assembly bill 2903, by assemblyman Mike Gatto (D – Los Angeles). It makes a number of changes in the way the commission does business, including transferring some transportation-related oversight duties to other state agencies, and sets up an undefined reevaluation of the way broadband and telephone companies are regulated.… More

Cooperative broadband is rare, but successful in California

28 August 2016 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Rural utility cooperatives have gotten a lot of good ink recently, as a possible alternative to investor-owned broadband companies. Although it’s a business model that’s far more common in the U.S. midwest and south, it’s been successful in California too. At least as far it goes – there are only three rural utility co-ops here.

Anza Electric co-op in Riverside County is in the process of building a fiber to the home system using a grant from the California Advanced Services Fund.… More

Speech-licensing regime for digital world challenged in court

27 August 2016 by Steve Blum
, ,

You have the right to a lobbyist. If you cannot afford one, you’re screwed.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation launched a constitutional challenge to a federal law that criminalises what you do with digital media and devices that you think you own. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act outlawed nearly anything anyone does that circumvents restrictions on DVDs you buy, mobile phones you own and pretty much anything that involves digital intellectual property. The language is so broad that it can turn millions of unwitting people into criminals every day.… More

Salt Lake City may be debut of Google Fiber 2.0

26 August 2016 by Steve Blum
,

Critical mass.

Google has launched what might be its last fiber project. Or maybe it’s the first deployment of Google Fiber 2.0. Residents and small businesses in the densely populated central area of Salt Lake City can now sign up for service, if they are in reach of the fiber plant that’s been installed.

As it typical, Google is hazy on the details of exactly where service is available, or what future expansion plans might be.… More

Telecoms lobby pushes California lawmakers to muzzle local government

25 August 2016 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

Watchdog?

City councils and county boards of supervisors in California have an annoying habit of listening to residents and questioning the broadband marketing hype spun in out-of-state corporate headquarters and spread in Sacramento, where perks and campaign cash buy an attentive audience. Keeping local government out of any meaningful oversight role is a high priority for cable and telco lobbyists, and their successful efforts are evident as the final texts of key legislation begin to take shape.… More

Caltrans buries dig once conduit bill

24 August 2016 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Too much work.

Under a veto threat from governor Brown, a bill that would have required Caltrans to cooperate with, and even participate in, broadband infrastructure development has been trimmed back to the point where it’s largely symbolic. Not completely: as currently drafted, assembly bill 1549 would still require Caltrans to allow all interested parties – independent Internet service providers and local governments included – to add conduit to state highway construction projects…

For the purpose of supporting fiber optic communication cables, after receiving notification from the department, a company or organization working on broadband deployment may collaborate with the department to install a broadband conduit as part of the project.

… More

CPUC votes to let telcos fine themselves, keep the money

23 August 2016 by Steve Blum
, ,

Miss me yet?

In the most cynical decision I’ve ever seen the California Public Utilities Commission make, telephone companies will be allowed to pay fines to themselves, if they fail to meet service quality standards.

Fines, it seems, are just another cost of doing business for telecoms companies and don’t matter anyway. So why not let them keep the money?

Boiled down, that’s CPUC president Michael Picker’s rationale for establishing new telephone voice service level requirements backed up by a swingeing schedule of penalties and then saying but we’ll let you keep the money if you invest it in infrastructure or pay staff.… More

Cable, telco lobby hack more meat out of California telcoms reform

22 August 2016 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Lobbyists from telephone companies largely prevailed in their fight to block meaningful release of information about what they do at the California Public Utilities Commission. And the cable lobby has, for the moment, maintained an Internet access chokehold on people who live in public housing.

Senate bill 1017 was pushed by San Bruno senator Jerry Hill, after a PG&E gas pipeline exploded with fatal results for his constituency. As originally conceived, it would have reformed archaic laws that allow utilities – including telephone companies – to stamp pretty much anything confidential and keep it hidden from local governments as well as the public.… More

When does a duopoly collapse into a monopoly?

21 August 2016 by Steve Blum
, ,

Event horizon.

Comcast and Charter Communications own nearly half of the U.S. broadband market. That’s the result I get from crunching the second quarter 2016 high speed subscriber counts compiled by Leichtman Research Group. Comcast has a quarter of the market – 25% – and Charter has almost as much – 23%. After accounting for rounding, the combination of the two totals out at 47% of U.S. Internet service subscriptions.

AT&T is the only other Internet service provider with double digit market share, but still lags far behind at 16%.… More