CEO provides details on Digital 395 progess and cost overruns


Yellow dots highlight unfinished business.

If the Digital 395 project doesn’t get the extra $10 million its backers are requesting from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), it will still be technically capable of providing service to some eastern California communities. Michael Ort, the CEO of Praxis Associates, gave a progress report on the project to the California Broadband Council yesterday, detailing work done so far, what’s left to do and, most importantly, why the state should spend more money to finish it.… More

Second chance for California broadband subsidies

12 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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It’s not pretty, but it’s alive again.

The California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) has a new lease on life. The assembly utilities and commerce committee brought senate bill 740 back from the dead this afternoon on an 11 to 4 vote. If it makes it through the rest of the legislative process, it will add $90 million to CASF and (sort of) lengthen the list of eligible applicants.

All fifteen members of the committee were on hand for the special meeting.… More

Monday is make or break day for California broadband subsidies

11 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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How many seats will be empty?

Eight members of the assembly utilities and commerce committee have to vote aye three times to resurrect a bill to top up and extend the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). A special committee meeting is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. on Monday, and senate bill 740, the CASF extension, is the only item on the agenda.

The first, and most important, choice committee members will make is to vote with their feet.… More

Sunday morning coming down in Sacramento

10 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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Jesse knew a lot about the cleanest dirty shirt.

Money is the mother’s milk of politics.
Jesse Unruh, most powerful assembly speaker in California history

Money, the kind that pays for increasingly expensive California legislative campaigns, is what gives Sacramento lobbyists power when ideas and ideals run out of steam. Voters remember the big and simple issues – say, whether to raise taxes or give hybrid cars a free pass in diamond lanes – but it’s lobbyists who meticulously track every vote on the small and complex bills that comprise the daily toil at the state capitol.… More

Eastern Sierra fiber optic project needs $10 million more from California broadband subsidy fund

9 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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Inyo County segment. Red is the original route, dark blue is the new route required by government regulators.

The Digital 395 broadband project needs another $10 million from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to cover unanticipated costs. A draft resolution released this week by California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) staff endorses the request and the commission is scheduled to vote on it at its 5 September 2013 meeting.

Originally funded by a $81 million grant from the 2009 federal broadband stimulus program, $19 million from CASF and $1 million from the applicants, Digital 395 is a 530 mile fiber optic middle mile system that will run from Reno to Carson City, Nevada, then head down the eastern side of California along U.S.… More

Latest proposed changes to California broadband subsidies a net gain, but not as much as hoped


Take the money and run.

There’s good news, good news and bad news in the latest version of senate bill 740, which renews and rewrites the rules for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). Under a deal cut yesterday, Comcast and a lobbying organisation for the cable industry in California said they would drop their opposition to the bill in exchange for tougher restrictions on how broadband subsidy funds can be spent.

It’s good news that an extra $90 million is going into CASF.… More

Cable lobby edits California broadband subsidy bill, but at least it's moving forward again

7 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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You can’t have my precious.

A last minute deal was struck with the California Cable Television Association and Comcast to get their support for a bill that would add $90 million to the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) and allow independent ISPs and cities to apply for infrastructure subsidies under very tight restrictions.

Senate bill 740 stalled in an assembly committee last month after cable lobbyists carpet bombed members with phony fears about overbuilding and false claims about how many Californians lack broadband service, and how much of it they need.… More

Comcast loves publicly subsidised overbuilds, when it's doing the building

6 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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You dare to overbuild me?

“Overbuilding” has been overused in Sacramento in recent weeks, with lobbyists from Comcast and the cable industry using the term to batter California assembly members into silence during a vote to extend a key broadband subsidy fund.

Casting themselves as victims of unfair, taxpayer-subsidised competition, the lobbyists claimed California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) money was paying to build new broadband systems on top of existing ones.

Not true.

Comcast cannot be overbuilt by any publicly funded project unless it chooses to be.… More

Bezo's WaPo purchase a chance to do good by doing well

5 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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Distinguished company.

The best explanation of today’s announcement that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is buying the Washington Post comes from the Post’s own story of the deal…

Throughout his storied business career, Bezos, who has a net worth of $25.2 billion, has been an empire builder, although he has never shown any evident interest in the newspaper business. He has, however, maintained a long friendship with [Washington Post CEO Donald] Graham, and they have informally advised each other over the years.

… More

New dark fiber networks may soon light up Oakland


Shining a little brighter.

The city council in Oakland, California voted last week to negotiate an agreement with a local group to build an interconnected dark fiber system, beginning in two areas at opposite ends of town.

The plan as presented is to start at the San Leandro border, tie into the Lit San Leandro network, and extend connectivity to the nearby commercial and industrial areas around the Oakland Airport. From there, the network would connect to existing fiber that runs along the Bay Area Rapid Transit rail line, bridging to a second dark fiber network to be built in downtown Oakland that’ll light up businesses as well as city facilities.… More