cetf

California still blocks the path to a T-Mobile Sprint merger

29 July 2019 by Steve Blum
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Caltrans flagger stop

The T-Mobile/Sprint merger ball is back in California’s court. Friday, T-Mobile, Sprint and DISH reached an agreement to shuffle assets and set the stage for a new, nationwide mobile network to emerge.

Maybe.

But that satisfied the anti-trust lawyers at the federal justice department.

It hasn’t done it yet for California attorney general Xavier Becerra or the California Public Utilities Commission, though.

Becerra is one of 13 state AGs who are backing a joint lawsuit in federal court, with the goal of blocking the merger as originally proposed.… More

With a $35 million side deal, CETF tells CPUC it backs T-Mobile’s takeover of Sprint

15 April 2019 by Steve Blum
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T-Mobile is getting a little help from a new Californian friend. In addition to a steady trickle of support letters sent to the California Public Utilities Commission by groups that are not well known for broadband advocacy or telecoms expertise, T-Mobile now has the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) on its side as it tries to gain approval for its takeover of Sprint.

CETF will leave its seat on the opposition side of the table and “enthusiastically and wholeheartedly support” the merger.… 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

Money and performance at center of CETF’s fight with Frontier

14 November 2018 by Steve Blum
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Frontier Communications says the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) has to return $714,000, if it asks for it. CETF’s response on Friday was we don’t have it anymore.

When Frontier won California Public Utilities Commission approval in 2015 to buy Verizon’s landline telephone systems in California, a long list of conditions was attached. Among them was a contract that committed “up to” $3 million to achieve the “aspirational goal” of signing up 200,000 low income Californian households for broadband service – from any provider, not just Frontier.… More

CPUC tells Frontier to answer charge it’s not meeting Verizon purchase obligations

7 November 2018 by Steve Blum
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Frontier Communications’ delivery on promises made when it received permission to buy Verizon’s Californian telephone systems in 2015 will be investigated by the California Public Utilities Commission. Earlier this year, the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) asked the commission to unilaterally change some of the conditions they imposed on Frontier when they approved the deal, claiming that the goals of the decision were not met.

According to the CPUC administrative law judge handling the case, last month CETF and six of its non-profit clients sent a letter to commissioners accusing Frontier of “attempting to abandon their obligations and escape their public benefit commitments”.… More

Frontier, CETF broadband adoption deal crashes and burns

16 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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A forced partnership between Frontier Communications and the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) to enroll low income broadband users fell far short of its 200,000 household goal, gaining only 9,173 subscribers over its two and a half year lifespan. That number is one of the few things that Frontier and CETF agree on. Who’s to blame and what comes next are hotly disputed.

It’s uncertain how many of those households were enrolled by CETF. Frontier independently acquired some, if not most, of those new subs through its normal sales channels.… More

CETF audit, more CPUC reforms approved by California legislature

17 September 2017 by Steve Blum
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A second round of California Public Utilities Committee reorganisation was approved in the final hours of the legislative session on Friday night. Senate bills 19 and 385 are heading to the governor’s desk. The main one is SB 19, carried by senator Jerry Hill (D – San Mateo), who has been deeply involved in CPUC reform efforts ever since a massive, fatal explosion of a PG&E pipeline in San Bruno in 2010.

There are general changes that affect the way the commission does business overall.… More

CenturyLink defends Level 3 deal with Trumpian flourish

26 July 2017 by Steve Blum
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They could have just tweeted it.

Sean Spicer has a new gig, ghostwriting legal briefs for CenturyLink. There’s no other way to read CenturyLink’s latest filing with the California Public Utilities Commission. It’s a whingeing, self-contradictory and occasionally bitter reply to the California Emerging Technology Fund’s (CETF) continued opposition to CenturyLink’s proposed purchase of Level 3 Communications.

CETF’s objections weren’t particularly on point – they were more concerned with spending CenturyLink’s money than maintaining a competitive fiber market in California – so it’s no surprise that the rebuttal skids and spins like a Lada sedan in a Moscow ice storm.… More

Centurylink deal still contested in California, still an insider game

24 July 2017 by Steve Blum
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CenturyLink’s purchase of Level 3 Communications faces opposition in California, despite a squishy settlement reached with three of the four organisations that objected to the deal. The fourth organisation – the California Emerging Technology Fund (CEFT) – registered its formal rejection of the settlement in comments filed with the California Public Utilities Commission on Friday.

Because Level 3 is certified as a telephone company, the CPUC has to determine if the transfer is in the public interest – whether or not anyone protests.… More

California broadband adoption rate flat for 5 years

8 July 2017 by Steve Blum
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The in-home broadband subscription rate in California is the same now as it was five years ago, and the cost of service is the biggest barrier to adoption. That’s the top line result from an annual survey commissioned by the California Emerging Technology Fund. This year, the research was carried out by U.C. Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies. It found that in 2017, 69% of Californian households are connected to the Internet via a “computing device”, which is the same rate as in 2013.… More