Telephone companies can begin bidding for FCC rural broadband subsidies

18 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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The FCC will accept bids for its rural broadband experiment program, starting next week. With $100 million on the table, to be spent at the rate of $10 million a year for 10 years, the effort is likely to produce something like a dozen or so projects.

Because of legal restrictions on the source of the money – the Connect America Fund – only telephone companies that are certified as eligible telecommunications carriers (ETC), or shortly will be, can apply.… More

Continued CPUC backpedaling on net neutrality draws activist fire

17 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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*”Okay, I got it.”*

The decision to pull network neutrality and the possibility of regulating broadband infrastructure as a common carrier off the table at the California Public Utilities Commission provoked harsh criticism from advocacy group representatives who showed up at yesterday’s meeting expecting to be in the discussion.

Tracy Rosenberg, the executive director of Oakland-based Media Alliance said that commissioners let down the 3,200 people who sent in comments via her website alone..

They are very disappointed by your action this morning.

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CPUC punts on putting broadband under common carrier rules

16 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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The hard way to get into the Hall of Fame.

Regulating broadband infrastructure under common carrier rules – also known as Title II of federal telecoms law – is dead, at least as far as the California Public Utilities Commission is concerned. Commissioners won’t be voting on whether or not to advise the FCC to solve the network neutrality debate by applying a traditional, telephone-style regulatory regime to Internet service providers.

The question was scheduled to be discussed at this morning’s CPUC meeting in San Francisco, but yesterday afternoon it was abruptly “withdrawn” from the agenda.… More

Google's bootprint in Austin won't be Texas-sized

15 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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google press release
Click for a somewhat bigger version.

Google Fiber plans to start offering gigabit service in a handful of Austin neighborhoods in December. That’s the word from a press conference held by Google earlier today. Details are sketchy so far – all I could find in the way of coverage this afternoon was a brief write-up on a website published by a local newspaper, Community Impact.

The article, bylined by Joe Lanane, identifies Austin’s South Lamar, Zilker, Bouldin and Travis Heights neighborhoods as ground zero, and quotes Mark Strama, Google’s local manager, as saying…

That is where we will start—that is not where we will finish…Not every part of Austin will get fiber, but all areas will have the opportunity, and we will build in the areas with the highest demand.”

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San Francisco might install its own conduit anytime someone digs a hole

14 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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The City and County of San Francisco is on the verge of assuming that it will install conduit and, possibly, fiber optic cables whenever someone cuts into a street. A board of supervisors’ committee has endorsed a proposed ordinance that requires anyone – including utilities and the City itself – who applies for a permit to open a trench in the City’s right of way or otherwise digs a hole on City property to notify the department of technology (DT).… More

With no BMOC, expect a different CPUC next year

13 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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With the departure of Michael Peevey as president of the California Public Utilities Commission after 12 years on the job, the style and, almost certainly, the substance of its work will change significantly. The direction and speed of that change depends on who the governor appoints to take his place.

Judging by the other four commissioners – all Brown appointees – the new honcho is unlikely to be an ex-utility executive like Peevey. Two of the current members – Mike Florio and Carla Peterman – are alumni of TURN, which is arguably the state’s most influential utility consumer advocacy group.… More

Guess what, you can find cats on the Internet. Even your own cat

12 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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Than again, maybe he doesn’t want to be found.

The Internet of Things gets a lot more relevant when it becomes the Internet of Your Things. Keys, phones and pets, for example. Stuff you need to find every so often. That’s the simple idea behind TrackR, a company founded by a couple of U.C. Santa Barbara students and funded on Indiegogo.

They make little coin-sized gizmos that you can attach to your stuff and link to your smart phone via Bluetooth 4.0.… More

How secure does your crock pot need to be?

11 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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If you let it simmer long enough, even a trojan horse will be tender.

The whole point of security is to make access to your stuff inconvenient. Not explicitly, of course, but that’s really what’s going on. If it’s harder for a bad guy to get in, it’s going to be harder for you too. It can be annoying to have to enter a pin code just to answer your phone But if someone uses it to clean out your bank account, that’s potentially a life changing event.… More

No surprise, CPUC president calls it quits

10 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission will have a new president next year. Michael Peevey, head of the commission for the past 12 years, announced yesterday that his current term will be his last…

I originally planned to make the following announcement at the CPUC’s regularly-scheduled Voting Meeting on October 16th, but instead I am moving the announcement to today to state that I will not seek reappointment to the CPUC when my term expires at the end of this year.

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Subsidising AT&T fiber to boost bandwidth for schools could be a net loss for rural areas

9 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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More federal subsidies for fiber build outs and connections for schools in rural areas, as FCC chair Tom Wheeler has suggested in a recent speech is a fine idea as far as it goes. But unless the money is used to create infrastructure that’s available on a competitive basis to all users – residents, businesses and local governments, as well as schools – the net result could be more expensive and less capable access for people in rural areas.… More