Steve Blum's Blog

Showdown time for California’s broadband future

24 August 2020 by Steve Blum
ab570, casf, public policy, rural broadband, sb1130

Like a gut shot gunfighter with nothing to lose, assembly bill 570 is both doomed and dangerous. Amendments made by the California senate’s appropriations committee were posted late on Friday: all new money for broadband infrastructure subsidies was stripped out. What remain are the monopoly protection privileges inserted by lobbyists for big telecoms companies, and the slabs of pork they’re tossing to their faithful followers.

AB 570 is authored by assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D – Yolo), but ghostwritten by the California Emerging Technology Fund, an incumbent-funded and advised non-profit.… More

California legislators lean toward faster broadband standard, as committees wrap up work

21 August 2020 by Steve Blum
ab570, casf, public policy, rural broadband, sb1130

Two competing broadband infrastructure bills faced final committee votes yesterday in the California legislature. Both passed on party line votes – democrats yes, republicans no – with changes on the way that might bridge the gap between them. Maybe for the good of all. Maybe.

Funding restrictions imposed on senate bill 1130 by the senate’s appropriations committee in June were removed by the assembly’s appropriations committee, apparently by mutual consent. SB 1130, carried by senator Lena Gonzalez (D – Los Angeles), would raise California’s broadband standard to fiber-ish 25 Mbps download and upload speeds.… More

CPUC reaffirms T-Mobile/Sprint approval, but wrangling over California jobs continues

20 August 2020 by Steve Blum
cpuc, mobile broadband, monopoly, sprint, t-mobile

The conditions imposed by the California Public Utilities Commission when it approved T-Mobile’s takeover of Sprint will stand, at least for now. The CPUC decided earlier this month to reject a request to re-do its decision made by opponents of the deal. Tweaks were made to the April decision that approved the merger, but those amount to yes, we meant what we said.

Requests for rehearing are often made but rarely granted. It’s a procedural box that needs to be ticked before a CPUC decision can be challenged in court, either by T-Mobile or its opponents.… More

Broadband consortium facing false reporting, contempt charges skids into CPUC hearing

19 August 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband adoption, casf, cpuc, regional consortia

For more than five years, the California Public Utilities Commission has wrangled with a consortium of five Los Angeles community organisations over a $450,000 grant that was supposed to be used to produce particular broadband education programs. Three of those groups were exonerated in tentative settlements reached with CPUC enforcement staff. Another agreed to pay a fine. But the fifth – Community Union – is contesting accusations of, among other things, “false claims”, “false reports”, “inadequate and incomplete” record keeping, and “adamantly” refusing to provide documentation to CPUC staff and to auditors from the state controller’s office.… More

Upload demand up, download demand down during covid-19 quarantine, report says

18 August 2020 by Steve Blum
ab570, broadband, covid19, geek stuff, sb1130

The covid–19 emergency buried the tired argument that consumers want fast download speeds to watch video and don’t need, or care about, fast upload speeds. If the flood of anecdotal reports about online classes freezing and telework grinding to a halt as upstream bandwidth gridlocked wasn’t convincing enough, a report published by a broadband data consultancy might finally do the trick.

OpenVault just published its network analysis for the second quarter of 2020, the first full quarter under covid–19 restrictions.… More

Newsom says Californians should get 100 Mbps, but doesn’t say how

17 August 2020 by Steve Blum
ab570, broadband, gavin newsom, public policy, sb1130

California governor Gavin Newsom finished up work last week with an executive order directing state agencies – at least the ones that report to him – to…

…pursue a minimum broadband speed goal of 100 megabits per second download speed to guide infrastructure investments and program implementation to benefit all Californians.

To achieve that goal…

Within ninety days of the date of this Executive Order, the California Broadband Task Force shall provide a preliminary report to the Office of the Governor that identifies administrative actions that can result in immediate promotion of broadband access and usage within the State.

… More

FCC preemption of local streetlight pole ownership upheld by federal appeals court

14 August 2020 by Steve Blum
ab57, fcc, pole attachment, public policy, small cells

The Federal Communications Commission can preempt local ownership of streetlight poles and other municipal property planted in the public right of way, according to a ruling on Wednesday by a three judge panel of the federal appeals court based in San Francisco. They mostly upheld three decisions made by the FCC in 2018, including one that effectively gave wireless companies freedom to mount equipment on streetlight poles at will, and only reimburse cities or other public agency pole owners for costs incurred.… More

California broadband subsidy bill goes from farce to tragedy as Big Telecom gets right of the first night

13 August 2020 by Steve Blum
ab570, casf, public policy, rural broadband, sb1130

To ensure that money from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) doesn’t go to independent Internet service providers who might loosen cable’s and telco’s monopoly/duopoly grip on Californians’ broadband access, the newly amended assembly bill 570 gives incumbents a right of first refusal over any subsidised broadband infrastructure project proposed by anyone in their footprints.

A small tweak to the bill’s language gives cable and telephone companies a huge competitive advantage over independent ISPs. Current rules define grant eligibility on the basis of the infrastructure and service that’s available right now.… More

Net neutrality returns to California, in law and in court

12 August 2020 by Steve Blum
fcc, netneutrality, public policy, sb822

Once again, network neutrality is law of the land in California, although there’s not much practical effect yet. Two years ago, the California legislature passed and governor Jerry Brown signed senate bill 822, authored by Scott Wiener (D – San Francisco). It bans blocking, throttling and paid prioritisation of Internet traffic on the basis of content, including specifically zero rating in-house content, as AT&T and other wireless carriers do.

The Trump administration and lobbying fronts for major telecoms companies immediately filed a challenge in a Sacramento federal court.… More

Taxing a dying business and giving the money to Big Telecoms’ friends won’t get kids to school

11 August 2020 by Steve Blum
ab570, casf, public policy, rural broadband, sb1130

California’s broadband infrastructure subsidy program is about to run out of money. With $145 million left in the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) under current assumptions, and $533 million in pending project proposals, it’s likely to go dry this year, even as schools go completely online.

The problem isn’t the 2022 end of the program’s funding mechanism, as one bill sitting in the California legislature claims. Assembly bill 570 is ghostwritten by the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF), an incumbent-funded and advised non-profit, and carried by assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D – Yolo), who is also well paid by AT&T, cable companies and other industry interests.… More