broadband

Trump's FCC takes shape, and it looks like a power tool

17 December 2016 by Steve Blum
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The new majority

The Federal Communications Commission will begin the Trump administration with a 2-to-1 majority. Chairman Tom Wheeler finally made his plans public on Thursday, saying he would hand in his resignation as Donald Trump becomes the U.S. president on 20 January 2017. That would leave two republicans – Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly – and one democrat, Mignon Clyburn on the commission.

Wheeler’s departure was inevitable. He would have lost his chairman’s gig the minute Trump took office, and his strutting style and big man on campus persona could never be sufficiently deflated to fit within the humble job description of a working commissioner on the minority side.… More

CPUC loses activist edge as Sandoval, Florio depart

16 December 2016 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission lost its most consistently activist members yesterday. Commissioners Catherine Sandoval and Mike Florio announced that they would be leaving when their terms expire at the end of the month. Both were appointed six years ago as governor Jerry Brown took office. Brown did not reappoint them to a second term, though.

Sandoval is the acknowledged telecoms expert among commissioners. She teaches telecoms law at Santa Clara University and was a staffer at the Federal Commission.… More

Commissioner Catherine Sandoval off CPUC

15 December 2016 by Steve Blum
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Commissioner Catherine Sandoval will not be on the California Public Utilities Commission next year. Her term expires at the end of the month, and she announced during today’s CPUC meeting that she would be returning to full time work as a law professor at Santa Clara University in January. In her farewell, she spoke about the work she and other commissioners have done to extend telecoms service to some of the remotest areas of California.

Broadband, conduit bills left stranded in Washington, D.C.

13 December 2016 by Steve Blum
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The 114th congress ended with a stack of unfinished broadband business. The most consequential might be the failure to confirm Jessica Rosenworcel for a new term on the Federal Communications Commission, but buried in the wreckage of more than a dozen broadband-related bills are hints of what to expect from the new congress and the new administration next year.

The one major bill with a chance to pass muster with lawmakers as well as the white house was the Mobile Now act.… More

Telecoms left out of new CPUC reform bill

12 December 2016 by Steve Blum
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California Public Utilities Commission reforms are back on the table in Sacramento, but the latest proposal doesn’t include anything specific about review or reorganisation of how telecommunications companies are regulated. Senate bill 19 was introduced by senator Jerry Hill (D – San Bruno) as new lawmakers were sworn in and the new legislative session began last week. He is the sole survivor of the trio that negotiated with governor Brown to come to agreement on a package of bills aimed at overhauling the CPUC last year.… More

End of the line for an intelligent, independent FCC commissioner

10 December 2016 by Steve Blum
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Happier days.

Jessica Rosenworcel won’t be coming back to the Federal Communications Commission next year. Not unless she’s renominated by either president Obama or Trump and the U.S. senate concurs. Or the senate takes the highly unusual step of returning to work during the holiday break. Senators wrapped up business for the year in the wee hours this morning, leaving a stack of unfinished business, including confirmation of a new term on the FCC for Rosenworcel.… More

Comcast uses monopoly muscle to claw back profits from cord cutters

9 December 2016 by Steve Blum
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Odd. He always seems to win.

Comcast’s operating profit drops by $5.50 every time a customer cancels bundled television service and goes with Internet service alone. That’s according to a story by Daniel Frankel in Fierce Wireless about some back of the envelope modelling done by Wall Street analyst Craig Moffett. His conclusion is that bundling prevents cord cutting, and I think he’s right. But another way of looking at it is that Comcast – and its mega-cable brethren – are using their monopoly control of high speed Internet service to extract significant rents – profits beyond what a competitive market would allow – from consumers.… More

DSL service hammered in FCC report

8 December 2016 by Steve Blum
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Cable modem service is reliable and fast, and getting faster, but DSL service offered by telcos isn’t. That’s the top line conclusion of the Federal Communications Commission’s 2016 annual report on fixed broadband service across the U.S…

When DSL is used to provide broadband service, the maximum advertised download speeds among the most popular service tiers has increased only slightly since 2011. In contrast, for cable services, the maximum advertised download speeds among the most popular service tiers have increased from 12-30 Mbps in March 2011 to 100-300 Mbps in September 2015.

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California's broadband speeds rank second among its peers

7 December 2016 by Steve Blum
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Where it really counts, California’s broadband speeds come out on top, or nearly so. We’re the sixth largest economy in the world, and our average broadband speeds rank second, 1 Mbps behind Japan. According to the Akamai State of the Internet report for April through June of 2016, the average Internet user in Japan connected to its content delivery network at 17.1 Mbps, while the average Californian connected at 16.1 Mbps.

Average connection speeds in Japan slowed a bit in the second quarter, from a high of 18.2 Mbps, as did California’s average, which was 16.4 Mbps in the first quarter of 2016.… More

California's telecoms playing field takes a tiny tilt towards level

5 December 2016 by Steve Blum
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It’s all the same.

The California Public Utilities Commission took a small, but significant, step towards treating all telecoms companies the same on Thursday. Cable and telephone companies, mobile carriers and any other communication service provider will now be subject to the same kind of safety enforcement procedures as other public utilities.

The commission [voted to allow enforcement staff to issue citations to any communications company]() that violates the safety rules that govern how utility poles, wires and cables, antennas, cabinets and other infrastructure in the public right of way is installed and maintained.… More