ab1366 – Steve Blum's Blog

Marginal copper upgrades won’t bring afforable broadband to rural California

6 November 2020 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, cpuc, frontiercommunications, public policy

Fiber matters, particularly in rural California where copper telephone lines are rotting on the poles and where cable companies can’t rake in the high level of monopoly profits they can in denser and richer urban communities.

It’s about speed, capacity and cost.

Technically, it’s possible to push 10 Gbps through some kinds of copper cable under the right conditions. It means operating at the ragged edge of what’s possible, though. Whether a cable or telephone company could actually achieve that in a rural area, given the age of their overall plant, their willingness to invest and the availability of backhaul is an open question that they can’t answer until they actually build it, although they will make promises regardless.… More

AT&T faces contempt hearing as CPUC defines VoIP regulatory role

3 January 2020 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, cpuc, public policy, voip

The first shot in what could be the defining regulatory battle over broadband in California was fired in the closing days of December by the California Public Utilities Commission. An administrative law judge (ALJ) ordered AT&T…

To show cause, if any, why [AT&T] should not be:

Found in contempt of [a 2019 CPUC decision regarding disaster preparedness].

Found in violation of the Public Utilities Code and [a CPUC rule requiring telcos to file price/service terms (aka tariffs)].

… More

Internet regulation is at the top of California’s 2020 policy wish (or wish not) list

31 December 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, cpuc, netneutrality, public policy, sb822

2020 might be the year that the State of California figures out what, if any, role it will play in regulating (or not) broadband service and infrastructure. As of tomorrow, the California Public Utilities Commission is no longer barred from regulating services like VoIP (voice over Internet protocol). A 2012 state law that said the CPUC couldn’t do that expired at the end of 2019.

But that doesn’t mean that anything is decided.

AT&T and its fellow monopoly model Internet service providers tried to get an extension of that ban approved in the California legislature this year.… More

California legislature tweaks telecoms policy instead of killing it

16 September 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, broadband, cpuc, voip

Despite AT&T’s quest for de facto deregulation of telecommunications infrastructure and service, no major telecoms policy changes emerged from the California legislature this year. A few small ball telecoms-related bills did emerge by the end of the 2019 session early Saturday morning, though, and were sent on to governor Gavin Newsom.

Assembly bill 1366 is dead, at least for this year. There was no last minute conniving to pull it out of the committee deep freeze it landed in earlier in the week.… More

AT&T’s backdoor telecoms deregulation bill runs out of room in the California senate

11 September 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, broadband, cpuc, voip

“AB 1366 was pulled by the author, so it will not be considered today”, said senator Ben Hueso (D – San Diego) as he called the senate’s energy, utilities and communications committee to order yesterday. Assembly bill 1366 would extend a ban on regulation of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and other “Internet protocol enabled” services in California.

Conventional wisdom says the bill is dead for this year. It wasn’t amended before last night’s constitutional deadline, so there’ll be no more wrangling over the bill’s language.… More

California telecoms backdoor deregulation bill, AB 1366, stalls

10 September 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, broadband, cpuc, voip

Assembly bill 1366 was “pulled by the author” ahead of a committee hearing this afternoon. The California senate’s energy, utilities and communications committee was supposed to review amendments made last Friday, but that didn’t happen. No reason was given. The bill might be dead, or it might be going through a final rewrite, ahead of tonight’s hard, constitutional deadline for amending it. Or something else – anything is possible today. Tomorrow, well, that’ll be a different story.… More

AT&T snakes perks into California deregulation bill, while its author ducks for cover

9 September 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, broadband, cpuc, voip

AT&T slipped more special privileges into a bill that would, in effect, deregulate broadband and modern voice service in California. At the same time, the bill was disowned, sorta, by its godmother, assembly member Lorena Gonzalez (D – San Diego).

Assembly bill 1366, which would extend an existing ban on regulation of voice over Internet protocol service (VoIP), was amended ahead of Friday’s soft deadline for changing bill language in the California legislature (Tuesday is the hard, constitutional cutoff for amendments).… More

Unanimous approval by key committee sends AT&T’s deregulation bill to a vote of the full California senate

3 September 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, broadband, cpuc, voip

When the legislative dust settled on Friday, after a whirlwind morning in which the fate of hundreds of bills were announced after being decided behind closed doors in Sacramento, assembly bill 1366 remained alive. Carried by assembly member Lorena Gonzalez (D – San Diego) would, on the face of it, simply extend an existing ban on regulation of “Internet Protocol enabled communications services”, including voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) telephone service.

Given the increasing number of consumers switching – and being switched without their consent – from legacy copper-based plain old telephone service (POTS) to VoIP since the regulatory ban went into effect six years ago, AB 1366 spells a de facto end to state oversight of broadband and telephone infrastructure and service in California.… More

Newsom administration says telecoms deregulation bill offer little protection, particularly in rural California

27 August 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, broadband, cpuc, SB1161, voip

Key opposition to assembly bill 1366 is coming from inside California governor Gavin Newsom’s administration. AB 1366 is the bill that would extend a ban on regulation of “Internet protocol enabled services”, including standard telephone service delivered by voice over Internet protocol technology (VoIP). It’s backed by AT&T, Comcast, Charter Communications, Frontier Communications and other telecoms companies, and a long list of non-profit organisations that they pay, but which otherwise have no particular interest in telecoms policy.… More

California telco deregulation bill amended, but not by much

15 August 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, broadband, cpuc, SB1161, voip

The latest, but probably not the final, amendments to assembly bill 1366 are posted on the California legislature’s website. It’s the bill that would extend a current ban on regulation of “Internet protocol enabled” services, including, particularly, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service.

The new version does not address the core objection of telecoms labor unions and the California Public Utilities Commission. They say that because AT&T and Frontier are switching customers from regulated legacy telephone technology to unregulated VoIP service, extending the ban on VoIP regulation would effectively deregulate telephone service completely in California.… More