broadband – Page 2 – Steve Blum's Blog

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

Frontier’s California outage complaint rate triple that of AT&T, electric companies

22 July 2020 by Steve Blum
att, broadband, cpuc, frontiercommunications, utility regulation

Frontier Communication’s service outage problem is three times bigger than any other major California utility, judging by consumer complaints submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission during the covid–19 emergency. On a per customer basis the bankrupt telco’s wireline outage complaints were triple those of AT&T, and greater than Southern California Edison’s or Pacific Gas and Electric’s on an absolute basis, despite having fewer than half the number of customers as either of the two electric companies.… More

Regulated or not, broadband is a utility and 25 down/3 up is the minimum needed. For now, CPUC says

21 July 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, cpuc, monopoly, public policy, utility regulation

Broadband is both a utility service and essential, according to a decision last week by the California Public Utilities Commission. A framework for analysing the affordability of utility services in the aggregate – the total monthly cost of energy, water and telecoms – was approved in a unanimous vote. The methodology sums the cost of the “essential service quantity” of all utilities and compares it a household’s ability to pay it, given all the other expenses – rent, for example – that have to be met, too.… More

CPUC votes today on setting 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up as California’s “essential service quantity” of broadband

16 July 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, cpuc, monopoly, public policy, utility regulation

The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to decide today if it will set a minimum level of “essential” broadband service that Californians need to function and, indeed, survive in the 21st century. After extensive public review of the second draft of a ground breaking staff study of minimum utility service needs and people’s ability to pay for it, a decision drafted by commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen would revise and then formally adopt the report’s conclusions and methodology.… More

Muni broadband, net neutrality get bland nods in Biden’s peace treaty with Sanders

10 July 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, fcc, netneutrality, public policy, sb822

Joe Biden’s campaign agreed to a skeletal broadband policy in what amounts to a peace treaty with Bernie Sanders and his supporters. The “unity task force recommendations” published on Wednesday amount to little more than a declaration that broadband is good, but it’s the first time that Biden has explicitly signed on to any conventional democratic party positions on telecommunications policy.

The document has the usual nice words about broadband being essential to life in the 21st century, with the standard nod to education.… More

Covid-19 was barely a sniffle for the Internet, study finds

7 July 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, covid19, geek stuff, ookla, sandvine

Source: “U.S. broadband networks rise to the challenge of surging traffic during the pandemic”, Anna-Maria Kovacs, Ph.D., MBA June 2020.

Broadband networks in the U.S. and around the world held up well as countries locked down and work, school and play moved online in March. Anna-Maria Kovacs, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., took a brief look at worldwide Internet speed test data collected by Ookla and traffic data from Sandvine, and found that the crush of traffic put a temporary downward bend – and only that – on planetary network speeds…

It is not unusual, of course, for internet traffic to grow…What is unusual in the Covid–19 environment is the suddenness of the traffic growth.

… More

Telcos struggle as subscribers dump legacy video and copper subscriptions

29 April 2020 by Steve Blum
att, broadband, frontiercommunications, verizon, video

It’s been a bad couple of weeks for big wireline telcos. Frontier Communications’ bankruptcy led the parade of dismal news. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission made a couple weeks ahead of going into bankruptcy, Frontier pinned the blame for its problems on its legacy copper business and the less-than-lucrative rural customers who depend on it. But that was no surprise.

AT&T’s and Verizon’s troubles weren’t exactly a shock, either. Some business lines, like video and copper-based broadband service, have been fading for some time.… More

Urban networks showed strain but generally held up as Californians began sheltering in place

30 March 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, covid19

Most broadband networks in urban California managed the load well as covid–19 shelter in place orders began taking effect, according to speed data analysed by BroadbandNow, a broadband sales website. The underlying data came from Measurement Lab, an open source Internet monitoring project that includes universities, foundations and major tech corporations among its members.

BroadbandNow compared the median download speed in the 200 largest U.S. cities (34 of which are in California) during the week of 15 to 21 March 2020 to the median speed range for the prior weeks of 2020.… More

California’s mountain counties get failing broadband grades, urban areas top the report card

25 March 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, ccbc, covid19, cpuc, rural broadband

The worst broadband infrastructure in California is, not surprisingly, found in mountain counties at the north end of the state. Trinity and Siskiyou counties both get “F” grades for broadband infrastructure, with a numerical score of dead zero. Sierra County likewise gets an “F”, with a numerical score of 0.03 that’s effectively zero. It is also the county with the highest percentage of population – 88% – without any access to wireline broadband service. It’s a serious problem for rural residents as business, education, health care and education move almost exclusively online during the covid–19 lockdown.… More

California’s broadband gaps affect millions as corona virus lockdown continues

23 March 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband, ccbc, covid19, cpuc, rural broadband

At least 1.5 million Californians – 4% of the state’s population – cannot get wireline broadband in their homes, as the second week of the corona virus lock down begins. That’s what the most recently published broadband availability reports filed with the California Public Utilities Commission show. Nearly twice that many – 2.8 million people, 8% of the population – don’t have access to primary wireline service that delivers 100 Mbps download/20 Mbps upload speeds, the minimum service level needed for in-home work, education, health care and entertainment.… More