Broadband gaps to fill, but willingness to do so in northeastern California

26 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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A different way of looking at it.

Many homes will still be without broadband service in northeastern California, even after upgrades paid by the federal Connect America Fund (CAF-2) program are complete. That’s mostly because the census blocks deemed eligible for the subsidies by the Federal Communications Commission are limited – many thousands of unserved homes are outside of those areas – but also because the FCC doesn’t necessarily require that all homes in a given census block be served.… More

WiFi is worth more to the economy than congress thinks, FCC commission says

25 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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What’s the value of free? That’s the question that FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is asking as she pushes for more WiFi – i.e. unlicensed and available to everyone at no cost – spectrum to be allocated. The core problem, as she sees it, is that congressional analysts don’t understand what freely available spectrum is worth to the U.S. economy…

Traditionally, the legislative process has overlooked the value of the unlicensed spectrum and favored licensed spectrum.

… More

California conduit battle continues as AT&T dances around the question

24 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Webpass’ fight with AT&T over access to conduit continues. That’s the word from a Kind Reader of this humble blog who seems to be in a position to know. Yesterday’s post about the complaint Webpass has filed with the California Public Utilities Commission about AT&T’s conduit access practices was behind events on a couple of points. I didn’t know the outcome of last week’s hearing or the fact that Google Fiber bought Webpass on Wednesday.… More

Google Fiber buys Webpass, jumps into CLEC infrastructure access fight

23 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Webpass was just acquired by Google Fiber. See this morning’s blog post about Webpass’ beef with AT&T at the California Public Utilities Commission for more info on what Webpass is up to.

It won’t have an immediate impact on the proceeding – lots of hoops to jump through first – but long term, it gives Google Fiber a big, new weapon in its fight to gain access to fundamental broadband infrastructure in California. There are also implications – positive – for its current fiber-to-the-apartment project in San Francisco.… More

Webpass challenges AT&T's iron grip on conduit

23 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Splice case in AT&T manhole, click for the big picture.

Update: Webpass was just acquired by Google Fiber. That won’t have an immediate impact on the proceeding – lots of hoops to jump through first – but long term, it’ll be fun to watch. Stay tuned.

Telephone companies and other regulated utilities have to share conduit and pole access. They can charge each other a particular rate for it or, if usable space is lacking, require upgrades.… More

Bills to scrap local cell site review and California Public Utilities Commission delayed

22 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Don’t have to look far to find a horse in Sacramento.

Afternoon update: There’s a growing consensus that AB 2788 is dead, rather than just delayed. Resurrection is always possible while the legislature is in session, though. We’ll know its status for sure, at least its current status, by Monday, if not before.

A proposal to allow mobile carriers to install cell sites pretty much anywhere they want – including on publicly owned property – without meaningful review by local government has been bumped by a week.… More

Net neutrality decision boosts FCC muni preemption case, but not enough

21 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Still not going anywhere.

The federal appeals court ruling that upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s common carrier and network neutrality rules for broadband did collateral damage to the State of Tennessee’s attempt to overturn the FCC’s preemption of state restrictions on local municipal broadband initiatives. But it doesn’t appear fatal, or even particularly serious.

At the same 2015 meeting where it voted to regulate broadband as a common carrier service, the FCC also decided to toss out state laws in Tennessee and North Carolina that prevented two muni fiber systems from expanding into neighboring jurisdictions.… More

Bill forcing California cities to lease cell sites, scrap permits magically appears

20 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Camouflaged with associated equipment. Can’t get any smaller than that.

Using a legislative maneuver delicately referred to as gut and amend, assemblyman Mike Gatto (D – Los Angeles) transmogrified a bill about natural gas storage into a free pass for mobile phone companies to 1. install cell sites pretty much anywhere they want with little or no oversight by local governments and 2. force local governments to lease publicly owned facilities for the purpose (h/t to Omary Masry at the City and County of San Francisco for the pointer).… More

The FCC didn't forbear from broadband rate regulation

19 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Not everybody gets through at the same time.

Republicans in the U.S. house of representatives want to write a ban on FCC broadband rate regulations into law. But that simple step would have far reaching implications for the net neutrality restrictions the FCC placed on ISPs. As the dissenting judge in the latest appellate court case wrote, it’s not just about how much an ISP can charge subscribers…

The [FCC] (at least for the moment) allows ISPs to provide consumers differing levels of service at differing prices.

… More

Broadband gets lowest satisfaction rating of any industry in latest survey

18 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Click to download the study

Consumers are a wee bit happier, on the average, with Internet service providers, but that’s not to say happy, according to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) telecommunications company rankings. Overall, Internet service providers get an average score of 64 (out of 100), up one point from 2016. It is the lowest industry average of all those ranked by ACSI. Subscription TV companies – there’s quite a bit of overlap, of course – are nearly as bad on the average, getting 65 out of 100.… More