broadband

Broadband fading into dull necessity at California legislature

26 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Unlike electric service, broadband isn’t turning out to be a hot topic at the California capitol this year. Friday was the 2019 deadline for introducing new bills in both the assembly and senate. Nothing of any consequence directly relating to broadband issues dropped.

Only two bills address broadband head on – assembly bill 1409 by Ed Chau (D – Los Angeles) and AB 488 by Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D – Yolo) – but neither breaks new ground as introduced.… More

Is AT&T too big and scattered to succeed?

20 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Att vans

With the acquisition of Time Warner’s movie and TV production companies, AT&T theoretically has the assets to become a vertically integrated content creation, packaging and delivery behemoth. But not all of its assets – including its management team – are necessarily well suited to the task.

AT&T’s challenge is to avoid outrunning its ability to manage three very different types of businesses: entertainment production, subscription-based linear video distribution and a huge heterogeneous telecoms network. Two of those businesses – subscription video and telecoms – are changing rapidly, and AT&T needs both vision and capital to stay in the game.… More

Federal agencies begin to sing the same broadband policy music, according to NTIA report

15 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Mormon tabernacle choir

There’s more coherency and cooperation amongst federal broadband development planning and programs, according to a report just released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Once you get past the love letter penned to president Donald Trump by a couple of his cabinet secretaries, it’s a good overview of how at least some parts of the federal bureaucracy are trying to coordinate broadband policy.

The need for better execution is clear. The report notes the gap between urban and rural broadband availability – 2% of urban residents lack access to fixed service at a minimum speed of 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up.… More

Frontier-CETF shotgun marriage will continue til death do us part

18 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Shotgun wedding

Frontier Communications and the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) have tentatively settled a dispute over a mandated low income broadband marketing program. Under the terms of the agreement, instead of ending last year, as previously scheduled…

  • The program will continue indefinitely.
  • Frontier will pay CETF an additional $25,000.
  • CETF won’t have to pay back any of the approximately $700,000 remaining from the $1 million advanced to it.
  • Performance goals remain “aspirational” rather than hard targets.
… More

AT&T, Frontier, Charter carve out exclusive California subsidy territory

16 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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As expected, AT&T and Frontier Communications blocked broadband infrastructure grants in vast swaths of rural California yesterday, at least for anyone but themselves. The companies filed reports with the California Public Utilities Commission stating they weren’t giving up federal Connect America Fund subsidies in any of the census blocks they claimed in 2015.

Charter Communications tried a similar trick, submitting a letter telling the CPUC where it will be upgrading video-only analog systems to digital capability later this year.… More

Newsom’s budget plan lowers barriers to public broadband financing

13 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Following up on one of the items in his campaign manifesto, California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, might make it easier to finance municipal broadband projects. One of the many, many ideas offered in his maiden budget proposal is to make it easier to form enhanced infrastructure financing districts by eliminating requirements for voter approval of bond issues…

Various economic development tools have been introduced following the dissolution of Redevelopment Agencies (RDAs), including Enhanced Infrastructure Financing Districts (EIFDs).

… More

Zorro in, Yoda out as a new political era begins in California

5 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Zorro 625 tall

California has had three democratic governors in the past 75 years: Pat Brown, Jerry Brown and Jerry Brown’s chief of staff. And the chief of staff – Gray Davis – didn’t end well. That changes on Monday, when Gavin Newsom is sworn in.

Jerry Brown earned his reputation as the wise old man at the California capitol. But he’s also a skilled operator, with the finest political mind in California. He would jump into a fight when it was both necessary and winnable, and he rarely, if ever lost.… More

New congress, old issues return to Washington, D.C. in 2019

30 December 2018 by Steve Blum
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There were two wins for broadband development policy in Washington D.C. this year, and both were backed by agriculture interests. In March, a big federal spending bill passed, with $600 million going to the new ReConnect broadband infrastructure grant and loan program, and the once-every-five-years farm bill was approved earlier this month, with at least $1.7 billion more for similar purposes.

Congress didn’t do much else, though.

Unless there’s a surprise on Monday, the year will end with one empty seat on the Federal Communications Commission.… More

Big telecom will see familiar, friendly faces at California capitol in 2019

28 December 2018 by Steve Blum
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California capitol horses 625

California broadband policy will be in the same legislative hands in 2019. Senate and assembly leaders announced committee assignments for the new term, and the chairs of the committees that dealt with major telecoms issues over the past couple of years remain the same.

Miguel Santiago (D – Los Angeles) retained his seat as chair of the assembly communications and conveyances committee. He didn’t make it into the top ranks – no leadership post or a seat on the powerful rules, appropriations or budget committees.… More

Lobbyists ask FCC to hit cities with another taxpayer funded broadband mugging

16 December 2018 by Steve Blum
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The ravaging horde of (largely) telco and cable lobbyists known as the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband deployment advisory committee (BDAC) has drafted its latest letter to Santa advice to FCC chair Ajit Pai.

Not surprisingly, it thinks that Charter Communications, Comcast, AT&T and other monopoly model broadband service providers aren’t getting enough love from local governments. Love, in this case, meaning give us everything you have, then go out and get us more.

If a city owns dark fiber, then it should be required to hand it over to “any private sector communications provider” on demand, and only be allowed to keep enough for its “reasonably anticipated 50-year fiber needs”.… More