Steve Blum's Blog

FBI didn't tell the whole truth about cracking encrypted iPhone

31 March 2018 by Steve Blum
fbi, hacking, public policy

When a pair of shooters attacked an employee party at a San Bernardino County facility in 2015, killing 14 people before being shot by police themselves, one of the attackers left behind an encrypted iPhone that might or might have had information relevant to the subsequent investigation.

Publicly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s solution was to force Apple to rewrite its iOS operating system so law enforcement could crack not only the San Bernardino phone, but any iPhone thereafter.… More

San Francisco court punts net neutrality decision back to D.C.

30 March 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, cpuc, fcc, netneutrality, public policy

It was nice while it lasted, but Washington, D.C.’s inexorable gravity has pulled the court fight over network neutrality – or lack thereof – away from San Francisco and back inside the Beltway.

Originally, a judicial lottery determined that the fifteen challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to roll back network neutrality and broadband status as a common carrier service would be heard by the federal ninth circuit appeals court in San Francisco, where Santa Clara County and the California Public Utilities Commission filed their cases.… More

Telco lobbyists eager to sue states over net neutrality laws

29 March 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, fcc, netneutrality, public policy

AT&T, Frontier Communications and other telcos will meet state and local level network neutrality initiatives head on. Using their Washington, D.C. lobbying front, USTelecom, they intend to “aggressively challenge state or municipal attempts to fracture the federal regulatory structure”. Or lack thereof.

In a rambling blog post that oddly invokes the original U.S. Articles of Confederation – it hasn’t had any legal effect for more than 200 years but even so, it explicitly gave states the power to make such decisions – USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter pledges to say “hell no” to any attempt by states or municipalities to revive network neutrality obligations.… More

FCC prepares to auction off $2 billion in broadband subsidies

28 March 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, connect america fund, fcc, public policy

There’s $2 billion worth of broadband subsidies on the table at the Federal Communications Commission, and providers that are interested in competing for it have until Friday to register.

The FCC published a list of areas, primarily rural, that were left out of previous rounds of federal Connect America Fund (CAF) subsidies, mostly because it cost too much to build infrastructure there or because incumbent telephone companies didn’t accept the FCC’s offer in the last round.… More

Charter's numbers don't add up, so New York adds a $1 million fine

27 March 2018 by Steve Blum
charter, cpuc, new york, public policy

Charter Communications is playing numbers games with its build out obligations and the State of New York’s Public Service Commission is blowing the whistle. Not just stopping the game, but also assessing a $1 million penalty.

As in California, conditions were attached to New York’s approval of Charter’s purchase of Time Warner Cable. Those obligations include “the extension of Charter’s network to pass an additional 145,000 homes and businesses across the State”. Charter has four years to complete that build out and must steadily complete 25% of the job each year.… More

FCC sets up rich exurb versus poor rural, urban debate over broadband subsidies

26 March 2018 by Steve Blum
cpuc, fcc, monopoly, public policy, rural broadband

Should low income areas be first in line for broadband subsidies? That’s a question that both the Federal Communications Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission are asking. The CPUC is considering giving priority for California Advanced Services Fund infrastructure grants to communities where median household income is at or below $49,200 a year.

The FCC floated that same idea last week. In the course of approving limits on allowable expenses for some subsidised rural broadband projects, it decided to take the next step and ask for public comment on possible approaches: giving eligible consumers a theoretical choice of providers through a voucher system, adding household income to the criteria for picking eligible areas, or even basing federal subsidies on a state’s ability to pay…

For example, should we target support not only to high-cost areas but low-income areas as well?

… More

Updated comments on California's broadband subsidy program posted

24 March 2018 by Steve Blum
ab1665, broadband, casf, cpuc, public policy

More comments are in about how broadband adoption programs should be funded by the California Public Utilities Commission. Or rather, I’ve found more comments – the filings from the CPUC’s office of ratepayer advocates (ORA) and the Central Sierra Connect regional broadband consortium landed in my spam folder last week.

It’s a chronic bug in the CPUC’s service list system. Anytime you submit something – comments, grant applications, motions, protests, whatever – regarding a formal CPUC proceeding, you have to send copies to anyone who’s signed up to be notified.… More

Actually, there is broadband money in the big federal budget bill

23 March 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, caltrans, conduit, hr4986, public policy

Update: Trump signed it. Done deal.

Update: the U.S. senate approved the bill this morning, now it’s up to president Donald Trump to sign or veto it.

An extra $600 million was added to federal broadband subsidies for rural areas, in the mammoth, all-in-one spending bill passed by the house of representatives yesterday, and up for a vote in the U.S. senate today. I missed it Wednesday night as I was skimming through its two thousand-plus pages, but the sharp eyed journos at Politico’s Morning Tech newsletter caught it.… More

Dig once, broadband spectrum added to federal budget bill

22 March 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, caltrans, conduit, hr4986, public policy

Broadband is getting a boost in the mammoth spending bill under consideration today in the U.S. house of representatives. But not cash.

Instead, the deal negotiated by republican and democratic congressional leaders rolls in a telecoms bill unanimously approved earlier this month by the house of representatives. It includes some useful, if mild, dig once requirements for federally funded highway projects – state transportation agencies will have to share construction plans, but not necessarily trenches, with Internet service providers and local agencies – and it frees up 255 MHz of spectrum for broadband use.… More