broadband – Steve Blum's Blog

California broadband plan is slow and soothing, particularly for monopoly model incumbents

22 December 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, california broadband council, gavin newsom, public policy, sb4

In August, governor Gavin Newsom said all Californians should have, at the minimum, 100 Mbps broadband service. He didn’t say how that would happen, though. The job was delegated to the California Broadband Council, a talking shop dominated by state government information technology managers. The final draft (not the final-final version) was published last week. It’s long on high sounding words about the universal need for broadband service and the wonderfulness of the benefits it brings, but endorses a much slower standard than the governor called for and has little to say about how to achieve even that much.… More

Biden’s new transition plan offers old broadband policy, so far

12 November 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, fcc, public policy, usda

The presumptive 46th president likes broadband, at least insofar as it promotes “an equitable, clean energy future”. He thinks everyone should have it, and the people who build and run it should be members of labor unions. That’s about all Joe Biden is saying about broadband policy as he begins to light up his transition team.

There are only a couple of mentions of broadband on Biden’s transition website, and it’s lumped in with infrastructure generally and environmental action specifically.… More

Scheming for a new FCC begins today in the senate

10 November 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, fcc, pai, public policy, rosenworcel

Nathan Simington is due to interview for the job of republican FCC commissioner today. The federal senate’s commerce committee is scheduled to consider what are now lame duck appointments to federal agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission. Even if the republican majority on the committee blesses Simington, he won’t be approved by the full senate unless republican FCC chair Ajit Pai agrees to step down before the end of the year. And maybe not then.

As a practical matter, the FCC is made up of three commissioners from the party holding the white house, and two from the other major party.… More

Telcos, cable use bad data to hogtie California broadband plan

4 November 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, california broadband council, gavin newsom, public policy, sb1130

It’s just an outline with more questions than answers now, but the broadband plan commissioned by California governor Gavin Newsom is beginning to take shape. A draft outline is posted on the California Broadband Council’s (CBC) website. It identifies the central problem that has challenged many Californians during the covid–19 emergency – lack of reliable, fast broadband service they can afford or, indeed, sometimes at any price – but doesn’t yet focus on specific solutions.… More

CWA union says AT&T redlines poor communities. California’s stats confirm the pattern, if not the extent

21 October 2020 by Steve Blum
att, broadband, cpuc, cwa, public policy

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) – the primary telecoms union in the U.S. – claims that AT&T is doing fiber upgrades in high income communities and redlining low income ones. A white paper published by CWA and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance claims…

The analysis of AT&T’s network reveals that the company is prioritizing network upgrades to wealthier areas, and leaving lower income communities with outdated technologies. Across the country, the median income for households with fiber available is 34 percent higher than in areas with DSL only – $60,969 compared to $45,500.

… More

CPUC adds broadband to subsidised lifeline phone service in California, if telcos and cable cooperate

9 October 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, cpuc, fcc, lifeline, public policy

Low income Californians will be able to get free or low broadband service via the state’s lifeline program, following a unanimous vote yesterday by the California Public Utilities Commission. The plan approved by commissioners is pretty much the same as the draft that was proposed last month. The language in the final version was tightened up, but no substantive changes were made.

Subsidised lifeline broadband service has been available for some time from mobile carriers, who typically provide at no cost to the consumer.… More

CPUC confronts California’s “monopolised” broadband market, despite “imaginary” and “perverse” federal policy

14 September 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, cpuc, monopoly, public policy, utility regulation

With the intent to “effectively deploy quality, affordable, and reliable broadband to all Californians”, the California Public Utilities Commission voted on Thursday to break the grip of telecommunications monopolies and change the way the industry is structured, incentivised and regulated.

It’s the CPUC’s response to governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order directing state agencies to fix California’s broadband deficit.

Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves, who is leading the effort, explained the reasoning behind it in stark terms…

It’s not really focused on how we are improving our current failed system, but it’s really asking what the different ways and approaches we can take to systemically change our current system around providing the critical service of Internet.

… More

Low income home broadband subsidies proposed by CPUC, but cable and telco cooperation needed

9 September 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, cpuc, fcc, lifeline, public policy

Wireline broadband service for low income Californians will be subsidised by the state’s telephone “lifeline” program, if a draft decision released last week is approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. The plan depends on California’s ability to “exercise its bulk purchasing power to secure volume discounts for participants”, rather than on pure regulatory muscle.

Qualifying households would pay a discounted rate for broadband and phone service. Current voice-only wireline lifeline service typically runs between $7 and $11 per month.… More

FCC clings to primitive standard for advanced broadband

27 August 2020 by Steve Blum
ab570, broadband, fcc, public policy, sb1130

Five years is a long time in Internet years. Broadband demand and data traffic rates continue to climb, and the number of people who absolutely need fast connections has skyrocketed in the past few months as work, education, health care and other vital services moved online in response to the covid–19 emergency. But the Federal Communications Commission, or at least its republican majority, wants to stick with a broadband speed standard – 25 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload – that it established more than five years ago.… 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