SB 917 is a plausible PG&E public buyout plan, if the public wants to pay the price

6 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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A credible PG&E public takeover plan is on the table in the California legislature. Senator Scott Wiener (D – San Francisco) introduced senate bill 917 on Monday. It’s a detailed guide to acquiring PG&E’s electric and gas business, including financing and operating plans and responsibilities.

Wiener wants to create a massive utility district that encompasses all of PG&E’s vast northern California territory. It would own most or all PG&E’s infrastructure and business, after it’s been acquired via an eminent domain process – the state would use its sovereign authority to take over ownership, with the compensation paid to the company likely determined by a court.… More

DISH ordered to answer detailed questions about California plans as CPUC extends review of T-Mobile/Sprint merger

5 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Dish ces press conference 2012

DISH must provide detailed information about its plans for infrastructure, service and employees in California, before the California Public Utilities Commission moves ahead with its review of the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger. The administrative law judge managing the case, Karl Bemesderfer, ordered DISH to “immediately provide substantive responses” to questions posed by the CPUC’s public advocates office (PAO). Links to the questions are below.

Bemesderfer’s order overruled DISH’s objections and the limitations it wants to put on the information it delivers.… More

California gets a zonk from the FCC’s new broadband subsidy program

4 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Zonk

The final language of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to launch a new broadband subsidy program could cause headaches in California. The FCC approved the new $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program last week, apparently with eligibility rule changes to the draft version published earlier in January.

In remarks prepared for the meeting, commission Geoffrey Starks flagged new language that would exclude places that are getting broadband subsidies from other sources…

I cannot support provisions of the Order that penalize the many states that have made their own investments in rural broadband deployment.

… More

Second round of RUS broadband subsidies opens, as California waits for something – anything – from the first round

3 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Usda eligibility map 31jan2020

Correction: The yellow blobs on the map above are not pending ReConnect grants, they are pending rural telco applications, which are also administered by RUS. So California is still a great big zero for ReConnect grants and/or loans. Thank you to a Gentle Reader for gently pointing that out. The text below has been updated accordingly.

The federal agriculture department’s Rural Utilities Service began accepting applications on Friday for $600 million in broadband infrastructure subsidies, via its ReConnect program.… More

$16 billion in broadband subsidies up for auction in November

31 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission will begin the process of handing out $16 billion in broadband service subsidies in November, with another $4.4 billion coming sometime later. Commissioners approved the new Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program at their meeting in Washington, D.C. yesterday. They set the minimum standard for acceptable broadband service at 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds: any census block that completely lacks access to service at that speed level will eligible for subsidies in November.… More

Investment analysts say AT&T, Frontier, others padded bottom line with FCC broadband subsidies

30 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote today on a new ten year, $20 billion broadband subsidy program called the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) that will mostly benefit rural communities. The proposal on the table would set the U.S. minimum broadband standard at 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds. That’s a lot better than California’s pathetic standard of 6 Mbps down/1 Mbps up, and a significant improvement over the 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up minimum that the FCC established for the Connect America Fund II program (CAF II), which RDOF will replace.… More

CPUC decision on T-Mobile/Sprint merger fades to March or later, as state attorneys general ask DC judge to wait

29 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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Tmobile store la 23oct2019

The California Public Utilities Commission won’t vote on approving – or not – T-Mobile’s takeover of Sprint until mid-March at the earliest, assuming there’s no extraordinary attempt to speed up a decision. Yesterday was the 30-day deadline for posting a draft decision ahead of the commission’s 27 February 2020 voting meeting.

After that, the next scheduled meeting is on 12 March 2020. There’s no particular reason, though, to expect a draft decision to be published in time to make that meeting.… More

CPUC asks for more time to adapt to FCC broadband subsidy program, but doesn’t say how

28 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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Paicines pole route

The FCC is heading toward a vote on Thursday that would raise its eligibility and minimum service standards for broadband subsidies to 25 down/3 Mbps up and award $20 billion in broadband subsidies as quickly as possible, perhaps in a single reverse auction in November. That’s welcome progress and a great thing for states that either have rational broadband policies or have no interest in broadband policy at all.

But not so great for California, which has irrational broadband subsidy policies.… More

Internet magic means phone calls aren’t phone calls, AT&T tells CPUC

27 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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Alice tall 625

We’re all mad here.

On Thursday in San Francisco, AT&T defended itself against charges that it’s in contempt of California Public Utilities Commission orders and that it broke CPUC rules and state law. AT&T is admitting that California law no longer bars the CPUC from regulating Internet protocol enabled service such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), but doesn’t appear to be giving up the fight. Instead, it’s falling back to a second line of defence that was thoughtfully provided by the Federal Communications Commission.… More

CPUC begins process of holding Frontier to account for service outages, but it might be too late

24 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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Nearly four years after the fact, Frontier Communications is being held to answer for the fumbled cutover of Verizon wireline customers it acquired in 2015. Last month, the California Public Utilities Commission formally opened an investigation into the widespread reports of dead lines and customer service meltdowns that went on for weeks after Frontier closed on its purchase of Verizon’s decaying copper telephone systems and somewhat more modern fiber to the home FiOS territories in California.… More