Net neutrality bill lands in the California senate with dim hopes

4 January 2018 by Steve Blum
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A doomed attempt to impose network neutrality rules scrapped by the Federal Communications Commission is underway in Sacramento. California senate president pro tem Kevin de León (D – Los Angeles) gutted senate bill 460, a leftover broadband bill from last year, and replaced it with language that would reinstate the three “bright line rules” – no blocking, throttling or paid prioritisation – adopted by the democratic majority FCC in 2015 and repealed by the republican majority FCC last month.… More

Frontier exceeds federal expectations but understates Californian obligations

Frontier Communications put out a puzzling press release yesterday. What should have been a celebration of good news, was instead a mish-mash of misdirection and lawyerly evasions that raised more questions than it answered.

The good news is that Frontier has upgraded broadband availability for 39,000 of the 90,000 rural Californian homes it promised the Federal Communications Commission it would serve with a minimum of 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds, in exchange for $228 million in subsidies.… More

AT&T's FirstNet deal means more but slower broadband in rural California

2 January 2018 by Steve Blum
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Governor Brown’s decision to join the federal FirstNet public safety radio system has pluses and minuses for rural broadband development in California. The system is intended to provide data connectivity and interoperable communications for police, fire and other first responder agencies across the U.S. The federal government awarded a $6.5 billion contract to AT&T to build and operate it.

As a part of the deal, AT&T is getting 20 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band.… More

Cash for 2018 campaigns drives broadband decisions in Sacramento

1 January 2018 by Steve Blum
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California lawmakers will tackle broadband issues in the coming year, but not ones that directly address the needs of businesses and consumers, or economic development goals of unserved communities. The hottest items will be reboots of two failed bills near and dear to the hearts of big telecoms companies.

Senate bill 649 was vetoed by governor Jerry Brown last October. It would have given mobile carriers, as well as telephone and cable companies, unlimited access to city and county-owned light poles, traffic signals and other vertical infrastructure at a token rental rate, far below market value.… More

Video will drive the U.S. mobile market in 2018

31 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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Consumer electronics is collapsing into a two-product industry – smart phones and big screen televisions – and the balance is tipping towards phones. The end of network neutrality will accelerate the shift, as the big four U.S. mobile carriers use their control over network traffic and service pricing to sell more content and capture more viewing time.

The big beneficiary is AT&T. Its DirecTv Now over-the-top platform just passed the million subscriber mark. The Federal Communication Commission’s decision scrapping net neutrality rules allows AT&T to exempt DirecTv from data caps – zero rate it – while subjecting everything else you watch to monthly limits and hefty overage charges.… More

AT&T still fails at FTTH, but slowly figures out how to make it work

30 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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AT&T hasn’t fully embraced fiber to the home service yet. At least not judging by my experience setting it up in a newly built, fully fibered apartment complex. But they are making progress.

Originally, AT&T only offered homes in FTTH islands the same service packages that they offered to surrounding copper customers. That still might be going on in single family home developments or in redlined neighborhoods, but they’ve developed genuine fiber packages of up to a symmetrical gigabit for multi-dwelling units.… More

California joins federal FirstNet public safety radio system, run by AT&T

29 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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Governor Brown announced that the state is opting in to the nationwide FirstNet public safety radio system that’ll be run by AT&T, under a contract from the federal government. Yesterday was the deadline, and California was the last state to decide. All 50 states have now opted in.

In his opt-in letter, Brown said he still has reservations about the 25 year project…

This letter serves as notice…that California has decided to participate in the deployment of the nationwide, interoperable broadband network as proposed in the FirstNet State Plan.

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Verizon's Sacramento 5G deal is about R&D and politics now, mobile service later

28 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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The City of Sacramento’s 5G deployment deal with Verizon will expand the broadband service choices consumers have by a little bit, and pave the way for faster mobile service in the future.

The deal allows Verizon to use city assets to install what will initially be an experimental 5G network that’ll provide fixed service, presumably into homes and businesses, in competition with AT&T and Comcast. But it’s immediate value is as a development project, with technical and political benefits.… More

Will the FCC be as shocked by Comcast's consumer deception as Washington's AG?

27 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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Comcast is even more dishonest that previously suspected, Washington’s attorney general told a Seattle court earlier this month. Bob Ferguson is suing Comcast over its habit of cramming service contracts, that don’t necessarily offer much service, onto monthly cable bills.

You can read the latest filing here. Ferguson’s office summed it up in a press release…

A sample of recorded calls between [service protection plan (SPP)] subscribers and Comcast representatives obtained by the Attorney General’s Office reveal that Comcast may have signed up more than half of all SPP subscribers without their consent.

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5G now a matter of national security, Trump administration decides

26 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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Telecommunications is one of the sorts of infrastructure that the Trump administration wants to improve, but its interest seems limited to upgrading wireless infrastructure for eventual 5G service. That support might only include regulatory reform, particularly federal preemption of state and local laws and property rights, rather than money.

It’s hard to tell exactly what the Trump administration means when it puts out statements about spending plans, telecommunications or otherwise. And it’s impossible to know what congress will ultimately do.… More