California legislature looks at extending moratorium on Internet services regulation

27 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Internet services, such as telephone service via voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology, are unregulated in California. For now. Federal preemptions, or attempted preemptions, aside, the California legislature approved a seven year moratorium on regulating Internet protocol (IP) enabled services in 2012. Senate bill 1161 said the California Public Utilities Commission and all state and local agencies could not…

Enact, adopt, or enforce any law, rule, regulation, ordinance, standard, order, or other provision having the force or effect of law, that regulates VoIP or other IP enabled service, unless required or expressly delegated by federal law or expressly authorized by statute.

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Net neutrality bill moves ahead in U.S. house

26 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Net neutrality demonstration dc 300

A key sub-committee in the U.S. house of representatives today approved a bill that would restore the 2015 network neutrality rules adopted by what was then a democrat-controlled Federal Communications Commission. It was a party line vote – dems yes, republicans no. The approved text hasn’t been posted yet, but there’s no indication of substantive changes from the version that was introduced earlier this month. The next stop is the house’s full energy and commerce committee.

California extends review of T-Mobile-Sprint merger to maybe July, maybe August

26 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Caltrans slow

T-Mobile and Sprint lawyered themselves into a four week delay in California’s regulatory review of their merger deal. Yesterday, a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge (ALJ) granted a request from staff to force the companies to turn over additional information, and extended the deadline for opening briefs to 26 April 2019, and for rebuttals to 10 May 2019.

Under normal circumstances, it would usually take about a month after that for ALJ Karl Bemesderfer to draft a proposed decision and, absent extraordinary circumstances, state law requires another month for public review and comment before commissioners vote on it.… More

Ad hoc decisions will make utility pole safety problems worse, PG&E tells CPUC

25 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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PG&E doesn’t like the pole attachment terms Crown Castle was granted by the California Public Utilities Commission, and is asking for a do-over. At its recent meeting, commissioners unanimously approved contract terms decided by a CPUC administrative law judge who was acting as an arbitrator in a dispute between the two companies.

It’s more than just a simple contract dispute, though. Pole route management policy is getting a hard look by the CPUC and by federal courts that are dealing with PG&E’s bankruptcy filing and criminal probation in the wake of deadly fires sparked by overhead lines.… More

Microsoft’s usage data shows FCC overstates broadband availability

22 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Microsoft oregon analysis 5dec2018

Microsoft is the latest organisation to tell the Federal Communications Commission that its broadband availability data is wrong. Earlier this month, an Internet advocacy group uncovered an egregious outbreak of map spam that skewed the FCC’s broadband analysis in several states, leading to a premature declaration of deployment victory (h/t to Wendy Davis at Digital News Daily for digging out the story). Last week, Microsoft presented its own analysis at the FCC, based on Internet usage data it collected itself, and came to the same conclusion…

The Commission’s broadband availability data, which underpins FCC Form 477 and the Commission’s annual Section 706 report, appears to overstate the extent to which broadband is actually available throughout the nation.

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Federal appeals court slows but doesn’t stop muni challenges to FCC wireless preemptions

21 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Samsung small cell

The federal appellate court review of two Federal Communications Commission rulings that preempt local authority over wireless attachment and wireline excavation permits, and take away local ownership of streetlight poles and similar property will continue, albeit slowly. Yesterday, the ninth circuit court of appeals in San Francisco refused to ice the case completely, as requested by the FCC and as dutifully echoed by wireless carriers.

Instead, the court consolidated the twelve separate appeals of the September wireless attachment order into a single case, and assigned it to the same set of judges who will consider two appeals of the August wireline excavation order.… More

Louisville’s Google project failed, but it was experimental success

20 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Microtrench

“Have a healthy disregard for the impossible", is a quote attributed to Google co-founder Larry Page. It’s a philosophy that took Google from two Stanford grads in a garage to being, on some days, the biggest company on the planet. It’s an acknowledgement that people aren’t always – or even usually – correct when they say you can’t do something. And it’s acceptance that sometimes the experts will be right.

(N.B. “Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done and why.… More

Wireless permit shot clocks aren’t really shot clocks, fee limits aren’t really limits, FCC tells appeals court

19 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Riverside pole mount

The FCC wants to stall a federal appellate court review of its order preempting local ownership of street light poles and similar municipal assets located in the public right of way. Dozens of cities, counties and associations pushed back against the move, telling the court they would face “significant hardships” if their appeal was iced for months while the FCC pretends to reconsider its original ruling at its leisure.

There’s no hardship, the FCC told the San Francisco-based ninth circuit federal appeals court in its reply.… More

FCC’s broadband victory proclamation looks like regurgitated spam

18 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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Spam

A wireless Internet service provider dumped a big load of map spam on the Federal Communications Commission last year, which appears to have fooled it into thinking that its “reforms” have brilliantly resulted in broadband “being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis” in the U.S. It’s a problem we have in California, as well.

In a letter to the FCC, the broadband advocacy group Free Press pointed to widely unbelievable – impossible – coverage claims made by BarrierFree, an east coat wireless Internet service provider…

BarrierFree claimed to offer FTTH service with downstream speeds of 940 Mbps to 100 percent of the geographic area and 100 percent of the population of New York State, and also to 100 percent of those seven other states.

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Tacoma weighs risk and reward with list of muni broadband suitors down to two

15 March 2019 by Steve Blum
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The City of Tacoma has narrowed the list of possible buyers of its municipal cable system – aka Click – down to two local companies, Wave Broadband and Rainier Connect. A year ago, the city issued a request for information and qualifications and received responses from five companies. Only two initially met the city’s specifications – Wave and Yomura Fiber – but subsequent talks convinced Rainier to take on more risk, and led to Yomura’s exit, due to ownership concerns.… More