Salinas pursues fast broadband to build ag tech corridor


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With big and small agricultural companies expanding in downtown Salinas and the southeast area of the city earmarked as an Ag Tech Corridor, the need for better broadband infrastructure is becoming critical. Yesterday, the Salinas City Council voted to ask for proposals from potential private sector partners who are interested in using city assets to build out high capacity networks.

Tellus Venture Associates recently completed a study for the City of Salinas that evaluated existing infrastructure and examined options for improving it.… More

New California mobile broadband metrics closer to reality

15 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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Then and now. Half the time, mobile broadband in Alameda and Contra Costa counties is pretty good. But all the time? Not so much.

Mobile broadband service in California is reasonably good overall. In some places, it’s excellent. In others, non-existent. And there’s a lot of gradations in-between. But you wouldn’t know that by relying on the marketing claims made by the four big mobile carriers, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. According to them, they deliver super service everywhere, except where it’s super duper.… More

Frontier's purchase of Verizon is a step in a competitive direction, says California attorney general

14 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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The decision to allow Frontier Communications to buy Verizon’s wireline systems in California was based partly on an opinion by the California attorney general’s office. The California Public Utilities Commission, which had the final say, asked the AG whether or not the purchase would be anti-competitive. On the contrary, came the reply, it should result in more competition…

We find that this acquisition has the potential to increase competition among competitive local exchange carriers. If indeed Verizon California has allowed its copper infrastructure to fall into disrepair, Frontier is likely to improve and maintain Verizon California’’s copper networks in a manner that may not have occurred absent the transaction.

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AT&T plans to push DirecTv aside

13 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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The DirecTv brand will fade from the U.S. marketplace beginning next year. According to a story by Karl Bode in DSL Reports, AT&T will start the process of re-branding the service as AT&T in January, and will complete it when the company’s next generation television platform is launched. That also means that Uverse will begin to fade as well, positioned as AT&T’s “legacy TV offer”. The plan, according to Bode’s story, is to consolidate everything into a single architecture…

The company has previously stated that it’s developing a new gateway that will allow third-party broadband connections, LTE connections and AT&T broadband connections.

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Google gets reminder that blocking California traffic is a sin

12 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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A Mountain View cop pulled over Google’s self-driving car to find out why it was holding up traffic by driving too slowly along a heavily travelled section of El Camino Real. According to PD’s blog post…

A Mountain View Police Department traffic officer noticed traffic backing up behind a slow moving car traveling in the eastbound #3 lane on El Camino Real, near Rengstorff Ave. The car was traveling at 24 mph in a 35 mph zone.

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Comcast offers Seattle the Philly weasel, er, deal

11 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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After months of fighting, Comcast and the City of Philadelphia reached agreement on a new 15 year cable franchise agreement that included a few spiffs, like expanded eligibility for the low income, $10 a month Internet Essentials program. The announcement came on the eve of a city council vote in Seattle, that would have approved a less generous deal. So, Seattle balked and asked for the same terms as given to Philadelphia. Surprisingly rapidly, Comcast and Seattle negotiators agreed on a few deal sweeteners, including the same IE eligibility upgrade.… More

Santa Cruz fiber love becomes serious city business

10 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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It’s a love fest, several Santa Cruz city council members declared on Wednesday afternoon, as they unanimously approved 1. moving ahead with negotiating a fiber to the home partnership with Cruzio, a local independent Internet service provider, and 2. pursue lease revenue bonds to pay the lions share of the tab. That city-financed portion – Layer 1 in Internet lingo – could go as high as $50 million. The core network – the fiber in the ground – is pegged at about $35 million.… More

Google talks fiber for LA, but so far no unicorn

9 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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More possibles in California, but so far no glass.

Los Angeles is now on Google’s list of “potential fiber cities”. LA, along with Chicago, are still a long way from officially joining the club, though. All Google will really say about the prospects of building in either city is…

As we kick off our usual checklist process, we’ll work closely with city leaders to collect detailed information about each metro area. From Venice Beach to Wrigley Field, we’ll study the different factors that would affect construction—like city infrastructure and topography—and use that information to help us prepare to build a local fiber network.

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Santa Cruz city council unanimously approves muni FTTH

8 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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The vote was seven to nothing, as the Santa Cruz city council moved ahead this afternoon with a plan to build a city-owned dark fiber network that will reach every home and business in town. Under the current plan, the system will be leased to Cruzio, a local independent Internet service provider. Cruzio will light the fiber – buy and maintain the electronics, and provision the Internet bandwidth – and run the business. The cost to the city is in the $30 million range.… More

Santa Cruz city council considers FTTH business plan and market data today

8 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for more market research data.

A business model and an outline of a deal to build a fiber to the home (and business) system in Santa Cruz will be on the table at this afternoon’s city council meeting. In June, the Santa Cruz council authorised city staff to negotiate a public/private partnership agreement with Cruzio, a local Internet service provider. The basic terms are now ready for review. The concept is for the City to pay for and own the fiber, and lease it to Cruzio.… More