broadband

New public financing method for broadband clears California senate

5 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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Padilla steps up for local broadband financing.

Broadband would be added to the list of public works projects that cities and counties in California can pay for via infrastructure financing districts (IFDs), under a bill passed by the state senate yesterday on a 36 to 0 floor vote. Assembly bill 2292 started life as a way of financing rail transport at the Port of Oakland, but was gutted and rewritten by assemblyman Rob Bonta (D – Oakland), at the suggestion of San Leandro’s mayor, Stephen Cassidy.… More

Google has hyped the gig Frontier CEO complains. Duh.

4 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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The hare provokes the tortoise.

Google’s campaign to vex incumbent broadband providers is a stunning success, at least judging by the thoroughly vexed comments Frontier Communication’s CEO Maggie Wilderotter made to her board. According to a story in the Oregonian, she slammed Google for, um, creating unrest amongst Frontier’s customers…

“Today it’s about the hype, because Google has hyped the gig,” said Wilderotter, in Portland this week for a meeting of her company’s board. She said Google is pitching something that’s beyond the capacity of many devices, with very few services that could take advantage of such speeds, and confusing customers in the process.

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Charter plans to strengthen its broadband business by trading away redlined communities

3 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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Click for the bigger picture.

Charter Communications will get a 2% bump in its Internet service market share, if the massive restructuring of the U.S. cable industry proposed by it, Comcast and Time-Warner is approved by federal and state regulators. By unloading systems that perform relatively badly on Comcast and a newly formed cable company – currently with the placeholder name of SpinCo – and, in return, adding systems from Time-Warner and Comcast, Charter will see its Internet subscriber base rise from 35% of homes passed to 37%.… More

Mars is underserved

2 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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NASA is asking for private sector ideas to upgrade broadband infrastructure on Mars. Right now, there’s a 2 Mbps link between Earth and Mars orbit, and 500 Kbps between orbit and rovers on the surface. More bandwidth is expected to arrive in orbit in the next few years, but not enough to keep up with planned surface missions. So NASA has issued a request for information, in the hopes of finding a partner who can offer a sustainable solution…

The RFI details possible new business models that would involve NASA contracting to purchase services from a commercial service provider, which would own and operate one or more communication relay orbiters.

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FCC accepts incumbent's broadband availability claims at face value

1 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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Click to see how you come out.

An interactive map and a big spreadsheet listing census blocks (careful, it’s 50 MB-plus) that are eligible for participation in the FCC’s rural broadband experiments has been posted (h/t to Tom Glegola at the CPUC for the pointer).

The rules mean different census blocks qualify for different aspects of the program, but some way, some how, all are eligible. Judging by what the FCC’s press release says, the spreadsheet is definitive: “census blocks not on this list are not eligible for funding in the rural broadband experiments”.… More

The history of electricity does explain muni broadband, if you read the whole book

31 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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There are parallels to be drawn between municipally operated electric utilities and broadband systems. Brian Fung, a blogger writing in the Washington Post, (h/t to Fred Pilot at the Eldo Telcom blog for the pointer) uses the example of the growth of depression-era federal projects, initiated by Franklin Roosevelt, that generated electricity and used city-run electric systems to distribute it…

Roosevelt launched the Tennessee Valley Authority…and the Rural Electrification Administration, among a number of other offices meant to provide power to those who’d been passed over by the privately owned utilities because those areas weren’t as profitable.

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FCC offers first class and coach options for commenting on muni broadband petitions

30 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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The FCC now has two petitions in front of it, asking that state restrictions on municipal broadband be swept aside. In both cases – Chattanooga, Tennessee and Wilson, North Carolina – the cities are already operating fiber-to-the-home systems in conjunction with muni electric utilities and want to expand their service areas. The Tennessee and North Carolina laws are different, but each in its own way effectively prevents FTTH expansion outside of the city or its immediate surroundings.… More

Broadband subsidies for public housing might be wrapped in less red tape

29 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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Assuming there aren’t back channel conversations going on, there seems to be something like a consensus forming around draft rules proposed for subsidising broadband facilities and marketing programs in public housing in California.

Earlier this month, the California Public Utilities Commission released recommendations for spending $20 million on upgrading broadband infrastructure in public housing and $5 million on programs to encourage residents to subscribe to and use Internet services. The money was part of a grand deal made last year to top up the California Advanced Services Fund and expand eligibility – at least in theory – to independent Internet service providers and, to an even more limited extent, local governments.… More

Three reasons to ignore the muni broadband debate at the FCC

28 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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Over the past few days, I’ve written several posts about what I characterise as FCC chairman Tom Wheeler’s muni broadband posturing. I don’t think anything good or useful will come of it. In a comment on yesterday’s post though, Christopher Mitchell, a muni broadband advocate, asked a very relevant question, which I will boil down to: so what?.

It’s a fair question. I take Robert Heinlein’s maxim as axiomatic: Certainly the game is rigged.… More

Muni advocates need to be careful what they wish for at the FCC

27 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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If you like the idea of cities and other local agencies encouraging broadband development and deciding to go into the business themselves – as I do – then FCC chair Tom Wheeler’s talk about sweeping away state-level restrictions is sweet music to the ears.

The City of Chattanooga certainly enjoys the tune. It filed a petition with the FCC on Thursday, asking it to override a Tennessee law that prevents it from expanding its fiber-to-the-home network.… More