broadband – Page 77 – Steve Blum's Blog

Broadband infrastructure can – and sometimes will – be regulated in California

16 August 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, comcast, cpuc, public policy

The California Public Utilities Commission is squarely back in the game of regulating broadband service providers, at least up to a point. That was the second shot across the bow fired in a ruling on Thursday ruling by a CPUC administrative law judge. In it, the commission declared that it would use broad powers it believes was granted by federal law to “remove barriers to [broadband] infrastructure investment”, as well as state law that charges it with deciding whether mergers it clearly does regulate – in this case, involving subsidiaries that provide telephone service – are in the public interest…

The ultimate test of a proposed change of control is whether or not it is in the public interest.

… More

CPUC steps in front of Comcast train, asserts authority over California broadband

15 August 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, comcast, cpuc, public policy

Rejecting Comcast’s and Time-Warner’s claim that the California Public Utilities Commission can only consider a narrow set of largely technical questions regarding their proposed merger, a CPUC administrative law judge ruled yesterday that the commission can evaluate – and approve or disapprove – aspects of the merger on the basis of a wide range of public interest issues.

The ruling tracks closely with protests filed by advocacy groups and the commission’s office of ratepayer advocates.… More

CPUC considers making rural broadband experiments 10% sweeter

14 August 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, casf, cpuc, fcc, public policy, rural broadband experiment

Proposals for FCC-funded rural broadband experiments in California will get an extra, and automatic, 10% subsidy, if the California Public Utilities Commission approves new draft rules released earlier this week.

As currently written, the resolution…

Pre-authorizes CASF monies for any California projects that the FCC selects and provides for such projects to be subject to the FCC Rural Broadband Experiments rules, not the CASF program rules. California applicants interested in participating in these Experiments must file with the FCC by October 13, 2014.

… More

California governor, lawmakers consider expanded infrastructure financing power for local government

13 August 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, caeconomy, public policy, sb628

A new plan to finance public infrastructure is being hatched in Sacramento and, at this point, broadband is included.

Chris Hill, a senior budget analyst working for California governor Jerry Brown, talked about the negotiations going on with legislative leaders, during an infrastructure breakout session at yesterday’s California Economic Summit conference at the state capitol. The idea is to allow local governments to create what are being called enhanced infrastructure financing districts that could sell bonds to build a wide variety of projects and repay the debt using property tax money.… More

Higher broadband construction costs means higher costs, California senate analysis admits

11 August 2014 by Steve Blum
ab2272, broadband, casf, cpuc, public policy

Not again.

It’s not exactly push back, but the first hint of clear headed thinking about more or less doubling broadband construction costs has emerged from the California legislature. Assembly bill 2272 would add broadband infrastructure subsidised by the California Advanced Services Fund to the list of construction projects that are subject to the state’s so-called prevailing wage law – in other words, be subject to union work rules and wages regardless of who is doing the work.… More

Broadband rocks the 80s in California public housing

10 August 2014 by Steve Blum
ab1299, broadband, casf, cpuc, public policy

There’s an odd debate going on over whether broadband service standards should be lower in public housing projects than in the rest of California, at least when the infrastructure is subsidised by the California Advanced Services Fund.

The California Public Utilities Commission is developing rules for spending $20 million on upgrading broadband facilities in public housing. The money comes from the same pot as the state’s primary broadband infrastructure subsidy program, which sets a minimum of 6 Mbps download and 1.5 Mbps upload speeds for systems it funds.… More

Wall Street isn't fooled: the (paid) political winds are at Comcast's back

9 August 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, comcast, fcc, public policy

If you’re less cynical than me – not tough – then you might think the reaction of Wall Street cable TV analysts to the end of Sprint’s bid to buy T-Mobile is amazingly cynical. I call it a refreshingly honest assessment of the current coin-operated leadership at the FCC. According to a story by Daniel Frankel in FierceCable…

The reported decision by Sprint to end its $32 billion quest to buy T-Mobile will provide a significant regulatory boost to Comcast in its $45 billion attempt to buy Time Warner Cable, and AT&T in its $49 billion effort to buy DirecTV.

… More

California bill defining broadband as public infrastructure diverted for review

8 August 2014 by Steve Blum
ab2292, broadband, community networks, public policy

A proposal to include broadband infrastructure in the list of things that special infrastructure financing districts (IFD) can pay for in California has been kicked to an assembly committee.

The measure – assembly bill 2292 – was approved by the California senate earlier this week, and was headed to a vote by full assembly. But because it was done using the gut-and-amend process – the text in an earlier bill that had almost nothing to do with the subject was stripped out and replaced with broadband financing language – the bill was diverted to the local government committee for review.… More

A highly concentrated Comcast would be nasty medicine for California

7 August 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, comcast, cpuc, public policy

There’s a great analysis by William Conlow of the impact of the Comcast/Time-Warner merger on cable market concentration in Techdirt (h/t to Bud Colligan for the pointer). Using a standard measure of market concentration – the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) – the article shows that the result of the merger will be an increase in market concentration in the U.S. as a whole, to the level of a Moderately Concentrated Market. That’s the middle tier of the HHI scale, which is well-explained in the Techdirt piece and in a linked federal department of justice manual on anti-trust assessment.… More

Comcast fights for fast track merger approval in California

6 August 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, comcast, cpuc, public policy

Broadband is out of bounds for the California Public Utilities Commission, according to a private pitch made to the CPUC by a Comcast staff lobbyist and a trio of lawyers representing Comcast, Time-Warner and Charter. They want the CPUC to limit its review of the companies’ proposed massive merger and market swap to a very restricted evaluation of the telephone service aspects of the deal. And ignore the near monopoly control over the cable television market and the commanding position in Internet services Comcast would gain in California.… More