Search Results for: ponderosa

CPUC debates fairness of giving big broadband subsidies to tiny communities

5 December 2013 by Steve Blum
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Is anyone home? (Click to download today’s staff presentation).

“It’s a little frustrating that this would be one of the last places you’d expect high quality internet service, yet you have communities like Point Arena and Gualala that don’t have service at all,” said commissioner Michel Florio this morning, as the California Public Utilities Commission discussed a proposal to give a $1.8 million subsidy to Ponderosa Telephone Company to build a fiber-to-the-home system in the remote Madera County communities of Beasore and Central Camp.… More

CPUC takes more time on broadband subsidy limits


I can explain that…

The California Public Utilities Commission is again bumping a decision on a particularly expensive broadband subsidy request for another two weeks. Commissioner Michel Florio pulled the $1.8 million grant proposal made by the Ponderosa Telephone Company for a Madera County fiber-to-the-home project from tomorrow’s commission agenda. As is customary practice, no reason was given, but it’s the second time this application has been put on hold.

It’s easy to spot what sets this California Advanced Services Fund application apart from the ten others that commissioners have approved without discussion in the past couple months: the amount of money they would be spending on each household in the proposed service area.… More

CPUC affirms relevance of broadband pricing and caps, approves subsidies for five Californian projects

The California Public Utilities Commission said yes this morning to spending $4.8 million from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) on five rural broadband projects.
Commissioners approved the subsidies unanimously and without discussion. The resolutions included language rejecting unsupported mobile broadband coverage claims made by Verizon and indicating that the commission considers broadband pricing and data caps to be relevant issues, if not formal criteria, when it decides whether to subsidise competitive broadband projects…

In addition, while the Commission in [its decision setting out rules for the CASF program] did not include broadband performance measure other than speed, the wireless broadband service offerings include data caps and pricing that are more restrictive than the proposed project’s service offerings which has lower prices and no explicit data caps.

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CPUC rebukes Verizon, prepares to vote on five broadband projects


No point in kicking if the game is long over.

A series of procedural temper tantrums earned Verizon politely worded advice to pay attention to the rules and nothing more. In revised draft resolutions (still) recommending approval of California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) subsidies for three broadband projects challenged by Verizon, California Public Utilities Commission staff laid out what should have been done. For example, regarding a project proposed for Boonville in Mendocino County…

CD staff reminds Verizon that for all CASF project proposals, a challenge window and deadline is set up for submitting challenges on pending applications.

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The art of estimating broadband subsidy costs by households in rural California

2 October 2013 by Steve Blum
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It’s one house, but how many homes?

Maybe 800 homes on the western side of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains will get upgraded broadband service, many via fiber to the home connections, if a pair of draft resolutions is approved by the California Public Utilities Commission.

CPUC staff is recommending giving Ponderosa Telephone Company a total of $2.7 million from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). About $1.8 million would go to an FTTH build in two small Madera County communities, Beasore and Central Camp, and $900,000 would help pay for a DSL upgrade and limited FTTH service in the Big Creek area of Fresno County.… More