FCC tries to stall court challenges to its local pole ownership preemption order

28 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Wjl thruway

The Federal Communications Commission asked the federal appeals court in San Francisco to put cases filed against it by local governments on hold.

Dozens of cities, counties and associations sued the FCC, challenging its preemption of local ownership of street light poles and other assets in the public right of way. Several have also asked the FCC to reconsider its September decision, which is a routine administrative request that is routinely denied. But the FCC hasn’t done anything with it yet, and is using its own inaction as an excuse to stall the court case.… More

T-Mobile, Sprint sandbag themselves as California’s merger review is bumped a month

27 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Sandbags

A document dump by T-Mobile and Sprint backfired at the California Public Utilities Commission. The administrative law judge managing the commission’s review of the proposed merger of the two companies gave opponents four extra weeks to digest and rebut thousands of pages of material submitted shortly before hearings were held earlier this month.

In his ruling, ALJ Karl Bemesderfer rejected a request by the CPUC’s public advocates office (PAO] for a second round of hearings, but acknowledged that T-Mobile and Sprint did not leave enough time to review all the documents they dropped on the CPUC…

Regardless of whether Joint Applicants’ rebuttal testimony contains new evidence and arguments, the sheer volume of the material together with the complexity of the subject matter has worked a disadvantage to [the PAO] that requires a remedy…

Accordingly, the schedule in this proceeding will be adjusted by moving the date for submission of opening briefs to March 29, 2019 and the date for submission of reply briefs to April 12, 2019.

… More

Broadband fading into dull necessity at California legislature

26 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Unlike electric service, broadband isn’t turning out to be a hot topic at the California capitol this year. Friday was the 2019 deadline for introducing new bills in both the assembly and senate. Nothing of any consequence directly relating to broadband issues dropped.

Only two bills address broadband head on – assembly bill 1409 by Ed Chau (D – Los Angeles) and AB 488 by Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D – Yolo) – but neither breaks new ground as introduced.… More

Telecoms takes a backseat in Sacramento, but PG&E could end up a hood ornament

25 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Skull hood ornament

Telecommunications in general, and broadband in particular, aren’t getting much attention at the California capitol this year. Friday was the deadline for introducing new bills for this year and, aside from privacy issues, nothing regarding telecoms that’s particularly substantive landed in the hopper.

Pacific Gas and Electric company and the California Public Utilities Commission, on the other hand, are in the gunsights of senator Jerry Hill (D- San Mateo). He floated a bill on Friday that would take much of the job of regulating PG&E away from the CPUC, and give it to the California legislature (h/t to Fred Pilot at the Eldo Telecom blog for the pointer).… More

Comcast reveals plan to pick a juicy cherry in Madera County

22 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Tesoro viejo

Comcast wants permission to offer phone service to a new Madera County development in Ponderosa Telephone’s territory. In a required public disclosure of a private meeting between a California Public Utilities Commission staffer and a lobbyist and a lawyer for Comcast, the company revealed that it is targeting Tesoro Viejo, a master planned community of 5,200 upscale homes on two and a half square miles of rural land in southern Madera County.

According to the filing, Comcast says that if it offers phone service in the development, it would create “additional consumer choice” but “would have limited effect on Ponderosa and its draw on [a rural telco subsidy] fund”.… More

FCC makes flabby broadband victory claims in a thin press release

21 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Sumo suits

In a press release heavy on spin and very light on data, the Federal Communications Commission claimed broadband “is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis” because the number of people without access to service at a minimum of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds decreased by 25% in 2017. The reason for this stunning achievement? “FCC reforms”.

But a closer look at the cherrypicked data in the release shows that this feat isn’t so amazing after all.… More

Is AT&T too big and scattered to succeed?

20 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Att vans

With the acquisition of Time Warner’s movie and TV production companies, AT&T theoretically has the assets to become a vertically integrated content creation, packaging and delivery behemoth. But not all of its assets – including its management team – are necessarily well suited to the task.

AT&T’s challenge is to avoid outrunning its ability to manage three very different types of businesses: entertainment production, subscription-based linear video distribution and a huge heterogeneous telecoms network. Two of those businesses – subscription video and telecoms – are changing rapidly, and AT&T needs both vision and capital to stay in the game.… More

Comcast seeks CPUC blessing to compete with rural telco, but only for not so rural customers

19 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Sierra 625

Comcast says it’s striking a blow for telecoms competition, Ponderosa Telephone says no, it’s cherrypicking business customers at the expense of rural residents. At issue is Comcast’s request to expand the area in which it’s authorised to offer telephone service to include the service territory of Ponderosa Telephone Company, a small, incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) that serves parts of Fresno, Madera and San Bernardino counties. Presumably, Comcast is eyeing Fresno and/or Madera counties, where both it and Ponderosa operate.… More

Federal online privacy cop needs direction, says GAO study

18 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Police academy

The federal government’s primary consumer protection agency – the Federal Trade Commission – doesn’t think too hard about policing online privacy violations, according to a report by the General Accounting Office. Generally, the FTC can act when a company engages in unfair or deceptive business practices. Figuring out what’s fair and what’s not in cyberspace is a complete puzzle, and impenetrable terms of service and other digital fine print typically give companies a get out of jail free card to companies, the report notes…

Some stakeholders said that FTC relies more heavily on its authority to take enforcement action against deceptive trade practices compared with the agency’s unfair trade practices authority.

… More

Federal agencies begin to sing the same broadband policy music, according to NTIA report

15 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Mormon tabernacle choir

There’s more coherency and cooperation amongst federal broadband development planning and programs, according to a report just released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Once you get past the love letter penned to president Donald Trump by a couple of his cabinet secretaries, it’s a good overview of how at least some parts of the federal bureaucracy are trying to coordinate broadband policy.

The need for better execution is clear. The report notes the gap between urban and rural broadband availability – 2% of urban residents lack access to fixed service at a minimum speed of 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up.… More