broadband

Californians with better Internet infrastructure have a better life, and vice versa

9 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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Bling is no substitute for bandwidth.

Statewide quantitative research done by the Field Poll on behalf of the California Emerging Technology Fund shows that most Californian adults – 86% – use the Internet “at least occasionally”. Most – 75% – have some kind of Internet access at home. But the way they access the Internet at home is also a good predictor of mainstream status.

Nearly all adults between 18 and 29, or with a college degree, or making $60,000 a year or better have Internet access at home.… More

No progress made in closing California's digital divide

8 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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If you’re a Californian who’s college age or even just a twenty-something, or you’re any age at all and you have a college degree, or if you’re making $60,000 or more a year, then it’s almost certain you’re on the Internet. If that’s not you, then not so much.

That’s the conclusion of a Field Poll conducted for the California Emerging Technology Fund that put some harder numbers on the digital divide here. The research, released today, showed that that core demographic groups – young, educated and/or making a reasonable living – are over the 95% mark in terms of Internet adoption.… More

Digital 395 fiber draws a last mile crowd in eastern California

Faster residential and business broadband service – including gigabit-class fiber-to-the-home service in some communities – is following in the wake of the Digital 395 project, an open access middle mile fiber link from Reno down through eastern California to Barstow. The California Public Utilities Commission just approved a $4.7 million grant proposed by Race Telecommunications to build FTTH systems in four small Mono County communities using the Digital 395 backbone.
The areas around Aspen Springs, Chalfant, Crowley Lake and Sunny Slopes should see upgraded service in the next couple of years.… More

FCC's E-rate program trading up to WiFi and a gig

7 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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By Jim Warner
Network engineer, U.C. Santa Cruz
Chair, Central Coast Broadband Consortium technical expert group

This is arguably a badly timed note about an FCC proposal due for decision on Friday, July 11. Any opportunity to comment – and have your comments count – ended months ago.

A year ago the commission put out a Notice of Proposed Rule Making that reviewed this history of changes to the E-rate program that provides about $2.3B/yr subsidies to educational uses of telecommunications services:

Click here for the NPRM

The big headline – when the rules come out – is that the FCC will be shifting the E-rate program to make Wi-Fi service ubiquitous in the nation’s schools.… More

Can Californian activism derail cable consolidation?

6 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission might have something to say about the proposed Comcast/Time-Warner merger and the follow-on market swapping with Charter Communications. Most of the regulatory and legal approval focus has been on Washington, where the department of justice and the FCC are looking at issues such as compliance with anti-trust laws and the impact on the national broadband and television service markets. But according to an article in the Capitol Weekly, there’s an argument to be made that the CPUC has a major role to play too.… More

Broadband policy on hold for lawmaker's summer vacation

3 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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Californian legislators are off for the next month, heading out of Sacramento this afternoon just ahead of the July 4th holiday and not scheduled to return until early August. At which point, they’ll have a less than month to act on the stack of bills in front of them, which includes two that carry significant implications for public broadband financing in California.

Assembly bill 2272 would about double the cost of broadband projects subsidised by the California Advanced Services Fund, by imposing union pay and work rules, regardless of who is doing the construction.… More

ET could have phoned home faster on fiber

2 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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In case you missed it, today was World UFO Day, a good time to pause and reflect on why strange things happen. There’s no dispute that UFOs are real. Pretty much any night of the week – usually around the time that people come stumbling out of bars, according to ground-breaking research in the Economist – people look up in the sky and see flying objects they can’t identify. Not only that, but none of their friends can either.… More

CPUC endorses long California broadband infrastructure priority list

1 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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Click for the full list.


Included in last week’s reboot of the California Advanced Services Fund’s broadband infrastructure subsidy program was a long priority list of places where broadband infrastructure is considered sub-standard by local communities. It’s the result of several months of work by regional broadband consortia throughout the state, most of whom presented their findings at a statewide broadband summit in Sacramento in March.
By approving the list – along with a new schedule and process for applying for CASF grants and loans – the California Public Utilities Commission put both incumbent cable and telephone companies and would-be competitors on notice that these dark spots on the California broadband map are ready to be filled.… More

Monopoly broadband network problems are common, solutions are not

Better markets attract better supply. Everywhere.

It’s not just best practices for broadband development policy that’s common to countries and communities, regardless of location or circumstance. Lack of competition at the network level is as big a barrier in South Africa as it is in California.

In South Africa the biggest gap in the national broadband infrastructure is currently in the access network illustrated by the fact that 86% of the population is within 10km from a fibre access point.

… More

Higher costs for subsidised broadband projects in California will come out of rural ISP pockets

27 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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Unfinished business.

It seems the only question left to answer about whether union pay scales and work rules will be applied to projects subsidised by the California Advanced Services Fund is where the money will come from. Following Wednesday’s hearing in the senate labor and industrial relations committee, it seems all but certain that the California legislature will approve assembly bill 2272, which would unequivocally impose so-called prevailing wage requirements on CASF infrastructure projects.

On a 4 to 1 party line vote, the committee approved the bill (with some clean up language), but didn’t include an amendment requested by lobbyists representing rural telecoms companies that would give them a statutory basis for asking the California Public Utilities Commission to cover the difference for existing projects.… More