broadband

Rural broadband gaps are life and death issues, California wildfire study says

24 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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Paicines pole route

Ageing, inadequate infrastructure contributed to the destruction during last year’s Camp Fire in Butte County that killed 86 people and did billions of dollars worth of damage. Congested roads were a big part of the problem, but so was a lack of telecommunications service, either because it was knocked out by the fires or, in many cases, not there in the first place, according to a report by a “strike force” commissioned by California governor Gavin Newsom…

In a matter of hours, 52,000 people from rural Paradise and surrounding communities evacuated onto roads built for a fraction of that capacity and converged on Chico, overwhelming the recovery system.

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FCC puts political agenda ahead of regulatory relevance

10 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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Self licking ice cream cone

The Federal Communications Commission is in danger of becoming just another one of Washington, D.C.’s self licking ice cream cones. Some would argue that it has already achieved that exalted status, but until pending court challenges to recent, major decisions – net neutrality and local property rights preemption, particularly – are decided, there’s still hope.

The latest example of hype-over-substance from the FCC’s current republican majority is the annual broadband deployment report that, at times, reads like an update from the old Soviet Union about its latest five year plan for increasing tractor production.… More

FCC’s broadband deployment report is good news, but not as good as it says it is

31 May 2019 by Steve Blum
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“Advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis” in the U.S., according to the Federal Communications Commission. In a self congratulatory report, the FCC issued what has become its annual declaration of victory in its congressionally mandated battle to encourage “the deployment on a reasonable and timely basis of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans”.

The report concludes that “the number of Americans lacking a connection of at least 25 Mbps/3 Mbps (the Commission’s current benchmark) has dropped from 26.1 million Americans at the end of 2016 to 21.3 million Americans at the end of 2017, a decrease of more than 18%”.… More

VoIP regulation, or something, passes California assembly

30 May 2019 by Steve Blum
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A bill that establishes consumer protections – of a sort – for people whose phone service is delivered via voice over Internet protocol technology, but otherwise leaves Internet-delivered services unregulated, was approved by the California assembly yesterday. Assembly bill 1366 passed with a lopsided, bipartisan majority: 64 votes in favor, versus six noes and ten abstentions, which have the same effect as a no vote. All the noes and all but one abstention came from democrats.… More

Strip mall or industrial park, broadband drives commercial property values

Even the smallest businesses want fast, reliable and competitively priced broadband now. My barber has 100 Mbps service in his one-man shop so he can run an online business on the side. Dollar stores couldn’t exist without access to a global market for surplus merchandise. Those are just two neighborhood strip mall examples. Every sector of the economy depends on broadband to maintain fast, real time connections to customers, suppliers, partners and data centers.

Broadband access distinguishes one commercial or industrial area from another.… More

Consumer rules for Californian VoIP providers, but no particular cop proposed by new draft bill

22 May 2019 by Steve Blum
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Twin peaks donuts

AT&T’s attempt to dodge regulation of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service took a turn down an unmarked legal road on Monday. Assembly bill 1366 is championed by assembly member Lorena Gonzalez (D – San Diego). As now reads, it would add rules about repair windows and bill credits for VoIP service outages to California’s business and professions code, but doesn’t specify any particular agency or method to police those requirements.

Generally, consumer laws are enforced by the consumer affairs department, or the California attorney general, or local district attorneys, or private lawsuits.… More

California bill that might or might not regulate VoIP moves forward in secret

20 May 2019 by Steve Blum
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An extended ban on regulation of Internet protocol-enabled services escaped legislative limbo last week, and is moving towards a vote by the California assembly. The big question now is: what does it say? Another major broadband bill, which would have funded after school broadband access for kids who lack it, died behind closed doors in Sacramento.

Assembly bill 1366 was originally written to extend a moratorium on any attempt by the California Public Utilities Commission to regulate voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) or any other service that rides on top of a broadband connection.… More

Zayo, a major fiber optic network owner, sold to private investors

9 May 2019 by Steve Blum
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Zayo bay area

Zayo announced yesterday that it had “a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by affiliates of Digital Colony Partners and the EQT Infrastructure IV fund”. The $8.2 billion deal takes Zayo off the New York Stock Exchange and puts it in the hands of owners who might have the patience to play the long game against the monopoly-model telcos – AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink, particularly – who control the lion’s share of long haul and metro fiber in the U.S.… More

FCC doesn’t swallow broadband map spam, but still does an availability victory dance

7 May 2019 by Steve Blum
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Carmen miranda 625

The Federal Communications Commission re-did its annual analysis of broadband availability in the U.S., after a broadband advocacy group and Microsoft separately called bullshit on the first version. But it’s not backing away from its claim that “significant progress has been made in closing the digital divide in America”.

Free Press is the broadband advocacy group that spotted a truckload of map spam when the FCC pushed out a press release in February, claiming broadband “is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis”.… More

VoIP regulation promised by California lawmakers after AT&T-backed bill boomerangs

25 April 2019 by Steve Blum
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Feral kid boomerang

Once again, a higher power interrupted the ongoing love affair between AT&T, Comcast and friends, and the California assembly’s primary telecommunications policy committee. As with the last time, the central issue is voice over Internet protocol service, with major labor unions – particularly, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) – opposing an attempt to exempt VoIP and other “IP enabled services” from oversight by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Assembly bill 1366 would extend a 2012 law that bans the CPUC from regulating IP-delivered services.… More