Contrasts of competence as California assesses power cuts and utility pole route management

14 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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Pge outages 9oct2019

California’s privately-owned electric utilities and their regulators have a long and difficult job ahead as they try to figure out what was good and what was bad about last week’s massive wildfire prevention power cuts. Their eventual conclusions will have a significant impact on how utility pole routes are managed in California, including possible new, and more costly, design standards, and budgets for maintenance and wildfire prevention. Those costs will ultimately be shared with telecommunications companies that also use those poles.… More

With or without California’s approval, T-Mobile looks for quick consummation of Sprint merger

11 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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Tmobile san francisco 18may2019

Does DISH matter? That’s the question that’ll determine whether the California Public Utilities Commission makes a (relatively) fast decision to allow T-Mobile to acquire Sprint. If it doesn’t, lawyers for T-Mobile and its allies hinted that the deal might move ahead without Californian conditions or, indeed, permission.

Yesterday, CPUC administrative law judge Karl Bemesderfer listened to arguments from lawyers on T-Mobile’s side who pressed for a quick end to the case, and from opponents of the deal who pushed for lengthy, formal litigation.… More

T-Mobile/Sprint merger review might go longer and harder in California, as DISH’s act is questioned

10 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission should get the dish on DISH, before deciding whether T-Mobile’s proposed takeover of Sprint “would serve the public interest”, according to a protest filed yesterday by a coalition of opponents to the deal. The group includes the CPUC’s public advocates office, two consumer advocacy groups and the Communications Workers of America, the primary telecoms union in California. To do that, they propose a schedule of testimony and arguments that would bump any decision on the merger until sometime next spring.… More

Broadband deployment will be more rigorous and costly in California, following U.S. supreme court ruling

9 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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Southern California Gas and Electric can’t pass on wildfire costs to ratepayers. The federal supreme court declined to hear SDG&E’s appeal of a California Public Utilities Commission decision that put some of the burden of a 2007 series of wildfires on company shareholders. California’s strict “inverse condemnation” law requires utilities to bear the full cost of any damage when their pole routes, or other equipment in the right of way, is even partially to blame. Monday’s decision lets that principle stand.… More

Federal court fast not-so-slow tracks appeals of FCC’s preemption of local pole ownership

8 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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The good news is that the appeal of the Federal Communications Commission’s preemption of local ownership of streetlight poles will be fast tracked. The not so good news – which isn’t exactly news to people who follow such things – is that fast is a relative term.

An order issued yesterday by the ninth circuit federal appellate court in San Francisco granted a request “to expedite oral argument” in the case, made by dozens of local governments.… More

Cities ask federal court to speed up review of pole ownership preemption, FCC says keep it slow

7 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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La small cell

Local governments from around the U.S. asked the federal appeals court in San Francisco to speed up consideration of their challenge to the Federal Communications Commission preemption of local ownership and control of the public right of way and assets located in it, such as street light poles and traffic signals.

In a motion filed last month, they told judges that on the one hand, disputes are piling up, and on the other, the FCC is aggressively pushing ahead…

First, there are several other cases progressing through the lower courts that will be affected by the outcome of this appeal…Delay in resolution will simply complicate the work of district courts and Circuit Courts of Appeal throughout the country, as more applications are filed and more disputes arise.

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PG&E pole attachment shot clock ready for another CPUC vote

4 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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Fiber attachments 625

The do-over of a settlement resolving a utility pole attachment dispute between Pacific Gas and Electric and Crown Castle is queued up at the California Public Utilities Commission. The original settlement was drafted by administrative law judge Patricia Miles and approved in March. But commissioners reversed the decision due to procedural mistakes, and told Miles to fix those errors try again. She did, and the new draft is the same as the old one.

If approved, the imposed settlement gives PG&E forty five days to “provide a response” to a pole attachment request from Crown Castle.… More

Net neutrality ruling sinks FCC local pole ownership preemption theory

3 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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Although a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. blessed the Federal Communication Commission’s “2018 Order” repealing network neutrality rules, the judges hearing the case overturned one section that tried to preempt any effort by state or local governments to step into the gap. If the plain language of Tuesday’s opinion is also applied to the FCC’s attempt to preempt local ownership and control of street light poles and other publicly owned assets located in the public right of way, then it’s a slam dunk bet that it’ll be overturned too.… More

Hope for California’s net neutrality law, as court upholds repeal of federal rules

2 October 2019 by Steve Blum
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Open internet dont tread on me 2

The Federal Communications Commission’s republican majority acted properly and within the limits of its authority in 2018 when it cancelled network neutrality rules approved in 2015 by the then-democratic controlled FCC.

Mostly.

A three judge panel on the federal appellate court based in Washington, D.C. – aka the DC circuit – issued its opinion yesterday, providing support for California’s enactment of its own net neutrality rules, but otherwise rejecting most of the arguments made by net neutrality advocates.… More

Salinas, AT&T sign master pole license agreement with small cell design standards and $750 annual rent, sorta

Downtown salinas

AT&T and the City of Salinas hedged their bets and signed a master license agreement for attaching small cell sites to city-owned poles that complies with current Federal Communications Commission guidelines, but snaps back to market-based fees if those rules are changed, or overruled by a federal court.

Last year, the FCC declared that municipal assets installed along roads or otherwise in the public right of way, like street light poles or traffic aren’t really city (or county) property, but instead are part of the right of way itself.… More