Google Fiber adds two California cities to the prospect list

13 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Irvine and San Diego join San Jose (and surrounding Silicon Valley communities) as possible expansion targets for Google Fiber. The announcement, which was made in a blog post, also included Louisville, Kentucky.

All three are now “potential fiber cities”, which means that Google Fiber intends to talk with local officials about what’s needed to move it up the classification list to “upcoming fiber city”…

Our next step is to begin a joint planning process with city leaders, just as we did when we began working with nine metro areas last year.

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Fiber middle mile link proposed for small California mountain community

12 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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The tiny eastern California community of Kennedy Meadows could be in line for a broadband capacity upgrade. The Ducor Telephone Company is asking the California Public Utilities Commission for $1.6 million from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to build a fiber line from Kennedy Meadows to the Digital 395 route that runs along the eastern side of the Sierra, between Reno and Barstow.

According to the publicly available summary, Ducor’s microwave link has hit capacity and there’s no practical way to improve it…

Currently, network facilities serving the region cannot deliver acceptable levels of broadband service.

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Santa Cruz to Soledad fiber optic network shifts course, makes progress

11 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Work on an independent fiber route that will run from Santa Cruz to Watsonville, and then on through Salinas to Soledad is moving ahead. So far it’s just paperwork that’s getting done, but that’s the part of the project that takes the most time. Originally proposed in 2013 and awarded a $10.6 million subsidy (out of a total cost of $13.3 million) by the California Public Utilities Commission in 2014, the network owner, Sunesys, LLC, spent a year obtaining environmental clearances and is now negotiating construction permits with the cities and counties along the way.… More

California-style regulation can kill or cure broadband, study says

10 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Reducing regulatory complexity, uncertainty and reach is the key to improving California’s broadband infrastructure, according to a report published by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. The study assessed the telecommunications and energy infrastructure necessary to successfully competing in a 21st century economy, and the steps needed to get it.

The focus of the telecoms recommendations was regulation, both at the local planning and permitting level and by the California Public Utilities Commission. Environmental regulations were singled out as a particular barrier…

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is considered another cost and delay factor in any infrastructure development that involves trenching or surface disturbance.

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Los Angeles opts for gigabit via unicorn to the home

9 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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The City of Los Angeles took the next step toward creating a city-wide, gigabit capable broadband system by issuing a request for proposal, aimed at attracting bids from companies or, presumably, other types of organisations that want to build and operate it.

Earlier this year, Steve Reneker, the city’s general manager of information technology, asked “are we creating a unicorn here?” The answer is unequivocally yes.

The RFP can be summed up as pay us for permission to build a city-wide gigabit network and then give service away for free.… More

Rural means something different in California

8 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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California has been shut out of federal broadband grants for infrastructure projects in rural areas for the past several years. I was asked why don’t California’s wineries and farms throw lobbying dollars at the problem?

The wineries and farms don’t need to. California agriculture is characterised by large corporate holdings (albeit sometimes family controlled). The ag operations themselves can usually get sufficient connectivity, by building their own point to point microwave links and, occasionally, fiber connections.… More

Federal court sets banana peel standard for consumer data protection

7 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Not best cybersecurity practice.

Companies that let bin loads of customer data get hauled away have one more thing to worry about: being sued by the Federal Trade Commission. A federal appeals court in Philadelphia ruled that the broad authority to police “unfair methods of competition in commerce” that congress gave the FTC 100 years ago extends to cyberspace. That means the FTC can move ahead with legal action against Wyndham Hotels, which let crackers transfer data from more than 600,000 customers to a server based in Russia in 2008 and 2009.… More

Projects, policies and plans for broadband development on California's central coast

6 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the presentation.

Broadband projects and policy are moving ahead on California’s central coast. That was my message to a meeting with elected officials from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, convened in June by the Central Coast Broadband Consortium (CCBC).

The project with the biggest impact on the region is the middle mile link between Santa Cruz and Soledad, which is being built by Sunesys and largely paid for by the California Public Utilities Commission via the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).… More

Rapid growth in mobile data use puts pressure on everyone

5 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the full presentation.

Mobile data consumption in the U.S. is growing exponentially, with typical usage hitting 2.5 GB per month, according to a report released by Chetan Sharma Consulting…

The average mobile data consumption (cellular) is approximately 2.5GB/mo. In the US, it took roughly 20 years to reach the 1GB/user/mo mark. However, the second GB mark has been reached in less than 4 quarters. An entire year’s worth of mobile data traffic in 2007 is now reached in less than 75 hours.

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FCC fines WiFi operator $750K for jamming at convention centers

4 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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It’s kinda like poisoning your water bottle to make you buy a $10 coke.

The Federal Communications Commission has nailed another company for trying to force people onto its own, very expensive WiFi service by jamming personal hotspots created by mobile phones and cellular wireless routers. Smart City Holdings, which sells WiFi access in convention centers for $80 a day, was fined $750,000 for forcing visitors onto its network. According to the FCC consent decree, it was the result of a complaint…

In October 2014, the Bureau’s Spectrum Enforcement Division undertook the Investigation, which included sending a series of Letters of Inquiry to Smart City and reviewing the company’s written responses.

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