Fiber to the home subsidies approved for two California communities

14 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Fiber to the cabin coming to Wrightwood.

The first two broadband infrastructure grants of the year, totaling $3.3 million, were approved last week by the California Public Utilities Commission. Ultimate Internet Access’s Helendale and Wrightwood projects sailed through on a unanimous vote by commissioners. Both are fiber to the home proposals promising to deliver a gigabit up and down to about a couple thousand residents each for $70 per month.
With one exception, the projects as approved were the same as originally outlined last month by CPUC staff.… More

Verizon steers mobile broadband toward advertising and video with AOL deal

13 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Will the network be neutral enough?

As Verizon runs away from wireline – copper or glass – telecoms service, it’s accelerating towards a video and advertising-centric business model. Yesterday it announced that it will buy AOL, assuming shareholders and regulatory agencies agree. It clearly wants AOL’s online advertising platform, although the draw has to be the technology rather than a killer market share: AOL claims less than 1% of revenue in the online advertising business.… More

CPUC considers whether copper ignorance is broadband bliss

12 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Hey, our customers are cutting the cord, why can’t we chop the copper?

AT&T and Verizon don’t want the California Public Utilities Commission to launch a study of the condition of their rotting copper line networks, and the new president of the commission, Michael Picker, wants to accommodate them.

In 2013, the commission decided to take a look at the core telephone network infrastructure maintained, or not, by AT&T and Verizon, as part of a review of service standards that telephone companies are expected to meet.… More

FCC declines to shoot itself in the head

11 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Oh, baby, you are so talented – and they are so dumb!

Check that one off the list. Pro forma petitions to delay enforcement of common carrier rules for broadband infrastructure and service were denied by the Federal Communications Commission on Friday. The request was made by pretty much every Internet service provider in the country, or at least the lobbyists representing them. They did it because it was a necessary legal hoop they had to jump through to be able to do what they really want: ask a federal appeals court to put everything on hold while they try to get the new rules thrown out completely.… More

California cable universe resets to default

10 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Control-alt-delete.

The last surviving remnant of the failed Comcast – Time Warner – Charter mega mash-up has gone to the Golden Hills. According to a story run on Reuters, Charter’s side deal to buy Bright House is dead…

Charter, the No. 4 U.S. cable operator, clinched the deal with Bright House in March contingent on completion of Comcast Corp’s $45.2 billion merger with Time Warner Cable Inc. Comcast walked away from the Time Warner Cable deal last month because of antitrust hurdles.

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Patent troll fight moves to, but not through the senate


John Oliver explains patent trolls and the U.S. senate.

The U.S. senate started working on its own version of an anti-patent troll bill with great optimism last week but, like a similar effort in the house of representatives, it’s bogging down in the Washington legislative swamp.

The objective is to keep shell companies from buying up patents and engaging the services of the predatory bar to launch bogus lawsuits and collection efforts against thousands of small companies, in the hopes that maybe hundreds of them will just write a check to make them go away.… More

California edges closer to full pole and conduit access for ISPs

8 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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In two separate, unanimous decisions yesterday, the California Public Utilities Commission narrowed the privilege gap between pure Internet service providers and traditional telephone and cable companies, at least concerning access to utility poles, conduits and other facilities and right of ways.

In one decision, the CPUC handed Google Fiber a victory by ruling that a company that has a state franchise to deliver television service over any kind of cable or wire (but not wirelessly) is a “cable television corporation” under California law and can ask for equal access to utility poles…

A state-franchised that transmits television programs by cable to subscribers for a fee is a “cable television corporation” as defined by [California’s public utility laws].

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Gee, I guess customers really do want faster broadband says Frontier CEO


Click for a closer look at Frontier’s proposed footprint in California.

Internet service tiers above the Californian minimum of 6 Mbps download speeds are increasingly popular among customers served by Frontier Communications. That’s one of the nuggets from the company’s quarterly earnings report and conference call on Tuesday. New CEO Daniel McCarthy said that 44% of customers who signed up for either new or upgraded Internet service in the first three months of the year opted for higher speeds.… More

CPUC broadband oversight might yet rise out of the wreckage of the Comcast deal

6 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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The five members of the California Public Utilities Commission might get a chance to vote on the Comcast-Time Warner-Charter mega-merger after all. That deal is still dead, but opponents are pushing for a decision anyway. As I wrote last week, there is a pile of work that was done and some controversial policy that was put on the table, not least the assertion by some commissioners and staff that the CPUC has the authority to consider the impact of its decisions on California’s broadband infrastructure and service.… More

ISP lobbyists ask FCC not to enforce common carrier rules while under court review

5 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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We’re all on the same page.

Internet service providers – nearly all of them – want the Federal Communications Commission to put common carrier regulations on hold while a federal appeals court decides whether or not the new rules are legal. Five major lobbying fronts representing cable, telephone, mobile and fixed wireless companies, as well as AT&T and CenturyLink, say that enforcing common carrier rules during the review process would cause “irreparable harm” because the appeal is “likely to succeed on the merits”.… More