California muni broadband bill lands on governor Brown’s desk

8 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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Net neutrality isn’t the only broadband issue awaiting a decision from California governor Jerry Brown. As the legislative session wound down to a close last week, the California senate and then the assembly approved assembly bill 1999 more or less on party lines – democrats mostly voted aye, republicans no.

AB 1999 explicitly sets out in law what has been the practice and, to the extent its been challenged, the long standing precedent that Californian cities and some kinds of special districts can build broadband systems and offer service, whether or not it’s in competition with cable and telco monopolies.… More

California cities can resist FCC pole preemption

7 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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A draft ruling by the Federal Communications Commission, if – when – adopted later this month, will preempt local ownership of street light poles and other facilities in the public right of way, and severely limit local discretion over permit fees, requirements and processes. At least that’s the goal the big four mobile carriers – AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint – had when they steamrolled their wish list through the FCC’s broadband deployment advisory committee and, when that wasn’t sufficient, the FCC’s leadership and staff.… More

Radical changes to city control of streetlights and wireless permits proposed by FCC

6 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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Cities and other local agencies could only charge mobile carriers $270 per year to install “small wireless facilities” on street lights and other property they own in the public right of way (ROW), under new rules proposed yesterday by the Federal Communications Commission. Permit fees and processing times, and other requirements, including aesthetic, undergrounding and minimum spacing standards – pretty much any basis for saying no – would also be sharply restricted.

If adopted later this month, the 100-page draft will make sweeping changes to the manner in which the public right of way is managed, and how it’s defined.… More

FCC proposes preempting city ownership of streetlights, caps rent at $270 per year

5 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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I said in this morning’s blog post that the devil will be in the details of the FCC’s draft ruling on small cell rules. It indeed is. The draft released this afternoon limits “fees for the use of government property in the [public right of way], such as light poles, traffic lights, utility poles, and other similar property suitable for hosting Small Wireless Facilities”.

That means that cities and local agencies will not be able to set “market-based charges” for renting out poles and other municipal property to mobile carriers, and would be limited to a maximum annual lease rate of $270.… More

New FCC rules coming for local small cell reviews, permit fees

5 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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Local governments can charge based fees to cover “the costs associated with reviewing small cell deployment”, but the Federal Communications Commission will set “specific fee amounts, below which we presume the local governments’ fees are lawful”. That’s according to a speech made by FCC commissioner Brendan Carr in Indianapolis yesterday. The draft of the new rules will be published shortly, Carr said.

Going by the plain words of Carr’s speech and the subsequent press release, the new rules won’t be about the lease rates that a city can charge for attaching wireless equipment to property that it owns, such as a light pole or traffic signal.… More

AT&T, Comcast, Charter backed groups fight California net neutrality with lies and fear

4 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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Lobbyists and front organisations for big telecoms companies killed one network neutrality bill – senate bill 460 – in the California legislature, and are carrying their fight against another – SB 822 – to governor Jerry Brown, who must approve or veto it. Their tactics include spreading lies and fear among senior citizens and other targeted groups.

According to an article in the Verge by Jacob Kastrenakes, an organisation that calls itself the Civil Justice Association of California is behind anti-SB 822 robocalls that targeted senior citizens, Asian Americans and Latinos.… More

FCC thinks its broadband standard is fast enough. What do you think?

3 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission is beginning its annual exercise to determine if Internet service in the U.S. is adequate, and it wants to know what you think of last year’s conclusion that 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds are “advanced” enough is good enough. Comments are due 17 September 2018. The FCC’s republican majority thinks so…

The 2018 Report found that the current speed benchmark of 25 Mbps/3 Mbps was the appropriate measure to assess whether fixed services provides advanced telecommunications capability.

… More

California can offer a cure for midwest derangement syndrome

2 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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Monterey County’s former U.S. congressman, Sam Farr, used to call it “midwest derangement syndrome”. That’s the condition that seems to afflict federal agriculture department subsidy programs, including broadband development grants and loans.

It’s real. The agriculture department’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) has a long track record of favoring small states with lots of small farms in small counties. In other words, the sort of rural communities that predominate in the midwestern and southern U.S.

California has places where you can find traditional family farms with traditional farm families in residence.… More

One net neutrality bill wins, one loses in the California legislature

1 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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One strong network neutrality bill – senate bill 822 – was passed by the California senate yesterday, but a second one – SB 460 – failed in the assembly.

SB 822 was carried by senator Scott Wiener (D – San Francisco). It reinstates the “bright line” net neutrality rules adopted in 2015, then scrapped in 2017 by the Federal Communications Commission: no blocking, throttling or paid prioritisation. It also takes a couple of general rules from the 2015 decision and makes them specific: no non-neutral zero rating and no evading net neutrality regulations via upstream interconnections to other companies.… More

Net neutrality wins California assembly vote, now it’s on to the senate

31 August 2018 by Steve Blum
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Senate bill 822 was approved on a lopsided vote in the California assembly yesterday. The tally was 61 ayes, 18 noes, 1 abstention. All democrats and five republicans voted aye; the noes and the abstention (which has the same effect as a no) were all republicans.

The bill, authored by senator Scott Weiner (D – San Francisco) reinstates network neutrality regulations in California: no blocking, throttling, paid prioritisation and non-neutral zero rating of consumer broadband service, both within an Internet service provider’s network and at the point of connection to other networks.… More