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Federal justice department has no problem with AT&T's takeover of DirecTv

3 July 2015 by Steve Blum
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Move along. Nothing to see here.

AT&T’s purchase of DirecTv is about to get the green light, without any inconvenient conditions, at least from the federal justice department. That’s the word from Bloomberg, which has a pretty good track record on this kind of reporting. According to a story by Todd Shields and David McLaughlin…

Justice Department officials closed their investigation without demanding any conditions, such as promises about fair treatment of Internet traffic, or demanding the sale of business units, said the person who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

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FCC wastes no time in bringing the net neutrality hammer down hard on mobile carriers

19 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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Shoot the first one out the door. That’ll give them to know our intentions as serious.

The Federal Communications Commission took a hard swat at AT&T, fining it $100 million for trying to weasel out of unlimited data deals it offered back in the days when the iPhone was being launched…

We find that AT&T…apparently willfully and repeatedly violated the Commission’s Open Internet Transparency Rule by: (1) using the misleading and inaccurate term “unlimited” to label a data plan that was in fact subject to prolonged speed reductions after a customer used a set amount of data; and (2) failing to disclose the express speed reductions that it applied to “unlimited” data plan customers once they hit a specified data threshold.

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No decision yet on investigating the condition of California copper

11 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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A bid by CPUC president Michael Picker to stop an investigation into the state of AT&T’s and Verizon’s copper networks in California is on hold until late next month. The California Public Utilities Commission was due to vote on whether to cancel that network study this morning, but commissioner Catherine Sandoval asked that it be delayed until 23 July 2015. She’s the second commissioner to ask for more time to consider it – Mike Florio was the first – and she’s the one heading up a series of public meetings aimed at finding out what’s going on with Verizon’s network, as part of the CPUC’s review of Frontier Communications’ purchase of those wireline systems.

Coalition of the unbelieving tells CPUC to get the facts about Verizon's copper

5 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for more naked network porn.

Frontier Communications’ proposed purchase of Verizon’s wireline networks in California can’t be adequately evaluated without investigating the actual state of those networks. Particularly the rural copper plant that Verizon is allowing to rot on the poles. That’s the gist of an unusual joint plea to the California Public Utilities Commission by the CPUC’s own office of ratepayer advocates (ORA), a group of consumer lobbying groups and the primary telecoms union in the state, the Communications Workers of America.… More

FCC hedging its common carrier bet in negotiations with AT&T

4 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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Don’t worry, it’s not time to walk away. Yet.

AT&T’s bid to buy DirecTv and add nationwide direct broadband satellite television service to its portfolio is getting caught up in the same kind of debate about broadband access that sunk the Comcast – Time Warner – Charter mega deal. According to a Washington Post article by Brian Fung, AT&T is offering to make concessions in exchange for approval by the federal justice department and the Federal Communications Commission.… More

CPUC delays votes on copper network investigation, Comcast deal

20 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission won’t, in all likelihood, be voting on either a proposal to stop a study of AT&T and Verizon’s wireline networks or on formally rejecting Comcast’s defunct request to buy Time Warner’s California cable systems and transfer Charter’s to its control. Both of those items were on the CPUC’s hold list this afternoon, and rescheduled for consideration in two weeks, at the 11 June 2015 meeting. Commissioner Mike Florio asked for the delay on the study vote; staff pulled the Comcast decision.… More

Verizon tries to leave California before anyone finds out how bad its network is

19 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Vanishing point.

The California Public Utilities Commission doesn’t need facts, it just needs to wave good bye and assume Frontier Communications will pick up the crumbling pieces of Verizon’s copper network. That’s what Verizon is claiming, anyway, in comments filed with the CPUC, endorsing a proposal by commission president Michael Picker to spike a technical evaluation of the condition of Verizon’s and AT&T’s decaying copper networks.

The [advocacy groups supporting a network study] claim that before the Commission can authorize the transfer of Verizon to Frontier, it must know the physical condition of Verizon’s facilities to determine whether Verizon bears responsibility for any “neglect of the network before the transfer is approved.”

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CPUC considers whether copper ignorance is broadband bliss

12 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Hey, our customers are cutting the cord, why can’t we chop the copper?

AT&T and Verizon don’t want the California Public Utilities Commission to launch a study of the condition of their rotting copper line networks, and the new president of the commission, Michael Picker, wants to accommodate them.

In 2013, the commission decided to take a look at the core telephone network infrastructure maintained, or not, by AT&T and Verizon, as part of a review of service standards that telephone companies are expected to meet.… More

AT&T says its future is fiber, but that doesn't mean yours is too

30 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Hanging out, but not hanging fiber.

With the Comcast mega-merger officially dead, the next big deal in line for federal review is AT&T’s proposed purchase of DirecTv. The buzz is that regulators don’t have the same concerns and the expectation is that AT&T will get a green light. The odd thing, though, is that the idea that the deal will improve rural broadband seems to have caught on in Washington.

AT&T sent a letter (h/t to the Eldo Telecom blog for the pointer) to the FCC claiming that consumers would see faster broadband speeds if the deal is approved because off-loading video delivery onto satellite will free up wireline bandwidth and that, somehow, the deal will make fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) service economically feasible for two million more homes.… More