T-Mobile gives CPUC some insight into post-Sprint merger plans for California, but won’t make it public

11 November 2019 by Steve Blum
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The hundred-plus pages of testimony submitted by three T-Mobile executives to the California Public Utilities Commission sheds a little more light on what the company intends to do in California when – if – it acquires Sprint and spins off customers, employees and assets to DISH. But most of the specific plans for California submitted to the CPUC last week were filed confidentially.

Chief operating officer Michael Sievert toned down the company’s weasel words about T-Mobile and Sprint workers in California, saying that the number of employees three years after the merger closes will be “equal to, or greater than” the current T-Mobile and Sprint total, even taking into account employees who might be transferred to DISH.… More

The wonderfulness of the T-Mobile/Sprint merger is only more wonderful, CPUC told

8 November 2019 by Steve Blum
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Tmobile store la 23oct2019

T-Mobile, Sprint and DISH filed their responses to the latest questions posed by the California Public Utilities Commission as it extends its review of the T-Mobile/Sprint merger to take into account the settlement reached by the companies with federal anti-trust attorneys.

I’m still working through the nearly 200 pages of “testimony”, particularly the statements by T-Mobile executives. From a quick scan, it looks like they’re following the line laid down by the company’s lawyers: nothing to see here, move on.… More

DISH stalls discovery of its California plans, so PAO asks judge to compel cooperation

7 November 2019 by Steve Blum
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Dish ces press conference 2012

DISH doesn’t want to disclose what its intentions are for the Californian customers, employees, spectrum, cell sites and retail stores it might – or might not – get from T-Mobile and Sprint when – if – the two companies combine. In a motion filed on Tuesday, the California Public Utilities Commission’s public advocates office (PAO) said that DISH stonewalled requests for information about its California-specific privacy policy, and network build out and customer service plans. So, the PAO is asking the administrative law judge managing the CPUC’s review of the merger to “compel responses” from DISH.… More

Ponderosa Telephone makes its case for blocking Comcast’s bid to cherrypick “high end” households

6 November 2019 by Steve Blum
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Tesoro viejo construction 25aug2019

Ponderosa Telephone shot back at Comcast’s claims that no harm would come from its proposed cherry picking of affluent households in a new, high end development outside of Fresno. In comments filed with the California Public Utilities Commission last week, Ponderosa made its case for denying Comcast permission to offer telephone service in its territory. The company argued that if the CPUC wants to change its current policy of protecting small rural telcos from competition, it should do so on a top level basis, and not on case by case requests from a major telecoms company.… More

Sprint takes half billion dollar revenue hit after ending improper California, federal subsidies

5 November 2019 by Steve Blum
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Sprint booth mwc la 2019 22oct2019

Losing California and federal subsidies it took for inactive Lifeline accounts smacked Sprint hard in the third quarter of 2019. The company released financial results yesterday, reporting that its third quarter revenue dropped to $5.0 billion, compared to $5.3 billion in the second quarter, and $5.4 billion in the third quarter last year.

Cutting off, and perhaps reimbursing, the money it was collecting for 885,000 Lifeline customers nationwide – and an estimated 145,000 in California – who were no longer using the service was number one of two reasons for the slide, according to a statement released by chief financial officer Andrew Davies

We recently notified the FCC that we had claimed monthly subsidies for serving subscribers even though these subscribers may not have met usage requirements under Sprint’s usage policy for the Lifeline program.

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CPUC queues up $24 million subsidy for 11 California broadband projects

4 November 2019 by Steve Blum
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Mobile home park

Eleven broadband infrastructure projects by four companies will be considered by the California Public Utilities Commission next month. Draft resolutions approving California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) subsidies for 11 out of the 13 grant proposals submitted in the May application window were posted on Thursday. The drafts are linked below.

Making the CPUC’s new six month deadline for processing applications is a major milestone for staff, and they deserve congratulations. In the past, reviews have sometimes dragged on for years, with endless and often meritless challenges allowed from marginal broadband providers who wanted to fence off service-poor communities.… More

Large scale telco, cable and mobile service outages follow California power cuts

1 November 2019 by Steve Blum
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Cell site outages 28oct2019

Hundreds of thousands of Californians lost their wireline broadband and phone service over the past week, as the state’s major electric utilities cut off power to millions of people in an attempt to prevent wildfires from breaking out. Mobile broadband and telephone subscribers were equally hard hit, with one county – Marin – losing more than half of its cell sites at one point.

The Federal Communications Commission has been tracking wireline and mobile service outages since last Friday, when the power cuts were hitting hard in Pacific Gas and Electric’s northern California territory, and public safety power shutoffs were beginning to bite in the southern California service areas of San Diego Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison.… More

Twitter spikes the political ad ball into congress’ court

31 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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Volleyball spike

Twitter will stop accepting political ads, for either candidates or causes. Posts on individual accounts aren’t affected. In a series of tweets (of course) CEO Jack Dorsey cited the “risks to politics” as his reason…

We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought…

A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet. Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people.

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Salinas City Council approves contract to build municipal fiber network

30 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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Salinas fiber

A contract to build the first phase of a municipal dark fiber network was approved by the Salinas City Council earlier this month. This initial leg is a mile and a half long, and will run west along Alisal Street, a main thoroughfare through the downtown business district, beginning at the new Salinas Police station that’s under construction on the east side of downtown and ending at Central Park on the west side. A lateral will also connect City Hall to the network.… More

We’ll know in 2020 what kind of service and customer enthusiasm lies beneath U.S. 5G hype

29 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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Small cell lacc 22oct2019

5G service will begin to enter the mainstream consumer market in the United States next year. Senior technology officers from all four major U.S. mobile carriers talked about their plans for moving beyond test markets and technology demonstrations last week at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Los Angeles. With consumer devices – smartphones, particularly – on the market and cell site construction and upgrades picking up pace, success will finally be judged on subscriber uptake and revenue, rather than on whose marketing pitch is the cleverest.… More