Californian telecoms policy decisions slide out of public view in Sacramento

4 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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Affairs of state.

Several broadband-related bills pending in the California senate were sent to the suspense file by the appropriations committee this week. That’s a standard maneuver that keeps them on ice until near the end of August when the session ends. At that point, a small group of legislative leaders will decide which will move forward and which will not.

A proposal to prevent lifeline telephone customers from switching carriers is one of the bills that’s on hold.… More

Telecoms companies don't manage information, they just transmit data

3 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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Honest, dude. You’re a dumb pipe.

There’s one big question at the center of the wrangling over whether Internet access can be regulated under common carrier rules: is it a telecommunications service or an information service? Federal law says telecommunications is a common carrier service and information is not.

When telecom laws were last overhauled 20 years ago, Internet access looked a lot like an information service. Nearly everyone dialled up an online service – America Online or Earthlink, for example – that, at a minimum, handled your email and provided a portal to proprietary data, public but non-Internet protocol content such as Usenet groups, and FTP and other servers, as well as the world wide web.… More

California dig once broadband conduit bill heard and held

2 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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Wasn’t Caltrans supposed to tell us about this?

The California legislature returned from its summer break yesterday, and immediately got to work on broadband-related issues. The big one on the table yesterday was assembly bill 1549.

Testifying in front of the senate appropriations committee, the bill’s author, assemblyman Jim Wood (D – Healdsburg) said that Caltrans isn’t following an executive order by then governor Arnold Schwarzenegger directing it to cooperate with broadband development efforts, and was lackadaisical about the one open trench pilot program that it ran…

AB 1549 puts in statute many of the requirements of the executive order from 2006.

… More

Your freedom of speech belongs to you, not your ISP

1 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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Freedom means what?

The most dangerous argument against treating Internet access as a common carrier service was made by a Texas wireless Internet service provider last Friday. In a petition asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision to uphold the Federal Communications Commission’s common carrier rules for broadband, Alamo Broadband made the outrageous claim that its First Amendment rights were violated because its right to freedom of speech includes the right to decide what its subscribers can and can’t see on the Internet.… More

Whose network is the network now?

31 July 2016 by Steve Blum
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No network to see here. Move along.

One of the six requests for another appellate court review of the Federal Communications Commission decision to regulate broadband as a common carrier service came from the mobile industry’s lobbying front, CTIA. It objects to being under the same regulatory umbrella as plain old telephone service, as do some of the other appellants.

CTIA’s argument hinges on what the definition of public switched network really is – under federal law, mobile broadband can only be regulated as a common carrier service when connected to it.… More

Industry asks appeals court to reconsider broadband common carrier rules

30 July 2016 by Steve Blum
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Politics? Moi?

The next round of legal challenges to the newly upheld decision to treat broadband as a common carrier service have been filed. Alamo Broadband, AT&T, the Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA), the National Cable Television Association (NCTA), TechFreedom and the U.S. Telecom Association (USTA) are asking the federal appeals court in Washington, DC to reconsider its earlier ruling and have all eleven of its active judges re-hear the case, instead of just the three that heard it earlier.… More

Battle for broadband in California's public housing heats up

29 July 2016 by Steve Blum
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Would you like some pay-per-view with that?

The cable industry is continuing its assault on low cost broadband designed for people who live in publicly subsidised housing. Cox Communications is the latest company to ask the California Public Utilities Commission to nullify broadband improvement grants given to public housing operators in their territory. The cable companies object because they also sell broadband service, along with very profitable television packages, to some of these communities.

The problem, though, is that residents aren’t subscribing to those services.… More

Cable preps to defend its monopoly grip on California's poor in court

28 July 2016 by Steve Blum
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What fun would it be if they had a choice?

Charter Communications is doubling down on the public tantrum it’s throwing over broadband access in public housing. The California Public Utilities Commission runs a program that pays for broadband facilities – but not the service itself – in publicly subsidised communities. The program was created by the legislature three years ago, and was the result of joint efforts by rural and urban interests – $90 million was added to the California Advanced Services Fund, with a net $25 million going toward public housing broadband and the rest into broadband infrastructure projects.… More

Fiber gems stand out on California's central coast

27 July 2016 by Steve Blum
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The industrial/commercial broadband Star Rating system developed by Tellus Venture Associates for the Broadband Consortium of the Pacific Coast shows a wide variation in high grade broadband infrastructure across San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

In the BCPC region, most commercial and industrial census blocks rated 1 Star or less, however there were ample instances of 2 Star, 3 Star and even some 4 Star Ratings. The highest aggregate rating for a city was found in San Luis Obispo, which rated 2 Stars overall.… More

Star Ratings show where to find high tech, industrial class broadband

26 July 2016 by Steve Blum
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Click to get the methodology, maps are below.

The best place on California’s south central coast – on the whole – to look for commercial or industrial real estate with access to fast, fiber optic broadband service is San Luis Obispo. But there are plenty of other cities in the SLO – Santa Barbara – Ventura county region with pockets of fiber availability that are as good or, in many cases, better.

In the course of a doing a regional broadband assessment for the Broadband Consortium of the Pacific Coast (BCPC), we developed a method for rating the availability of commercial and industrial-class broadband infrastructure.… More