community networks

Next round looms in muni broadband preemption fight

22 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Responses from the states of Tennessee and North Carolina to the Federal Communication Commission’s defence of its preemption of their restrictions on municipal broadband are due later this week. My expectation is that they’ll gloss over most of the counter arguments offered by the FCC and several other groups that support the preemption, and reiterate their core point, which is that states have the traditional right to set limits on how, what and where cities may offer service of any sort, and current telecoms law doesn’t say otherwise.… More

FCC's argument against voter discretion is out of bounds

13 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Voters don’t have to stick to the story you give them.

Local governments are not private businesses and are not managed as if they were. That simple fact of life seems to be bothering the Federal Communications Commission. In its defence of its preemption of state restrictions on municipal broadband systems, filed with a federal appeals court, the FCC points to commonplace public disclosure, debate and voting requirements imposed by North Carolina as attempts to regulate interstate commerce rather than govern municipalities…

These include a requirement that the city hold public hearings and a special election.

… More

Federal justice department won't defend muni broadband preemption

10 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Out on a limb.

Municipal broadband advocates aren’t getting any help from the federal justice department. In a one line letter filed with a federal appeals court last week, the justice department wrote “respondent United States of America takes no position” in the dispute between the Federal Communications Commission and the states of Tennessee and North Carolina over whether state restrictions on muni broadband can be preempted by the FCC.

According to a Washington Post story (h/t to the Baller Herbst list for the pointer), the likeliest explanation is that the FCC is fighting a losing battle…

The Justice Department said Friday that it won’t be helping the Federal Communications Commission fight a couple of key lawsuits on municipal broadband, in a possible indication of trouble ahead for the FCC…

It’s not unheard of for the Justice Department to bow out of a case involving a federal agency.

… More

FCC misses triple bank shot defence of muni broadband preemption

6 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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It only counts if you make it.

Tennessee and North Carolina effectively banned cities from providing broadband service outside of their geographical city limits for the wrong reason: to regulate broadband competition. That’s the case that the Federal Communications Commission is trying to make, as it defended its preemption of state limits on the scope of municipal Internet service providers in a brief filed yesterday in the federal appeals court hearing the case.

The FCC’s argument boils down to 1.… More

Tennessee says FCC can't step on states' authority over cities

24 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Rock solid sovereignty.

The State of Tennessee has offered its basis for challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to preempt state restrictions on local broadband initiatives, making its case in a brief filed with a federal appeals court in Cincinnati.

Tennessee’s top line argument is that congress has no authority under the U.S. constitution to tell states how to manage or delegate authority to subordinate units such as cities and counties. On its own, that probably won’t fly – states have broad but not unlimited discretion.… More

Santa Cruz to Soledad fiber optic network shifts course, makes progress

11 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Work on an independent fiber route that will run from Santa Cruz to Watsonville, and then on through Salinas to Soledad is moving ahead. So far it’s just paperwork that’s getting done, but that’s the part of the project that takes the most time. Originally proposed in 2013 and awarded a $10.6 million subsidy (out of a total cost of $13.3 million) by the California Public Utilities Commission in 2014, the network owner, Sunesys, LLC, spent a year obtaining environmental clearances and is now negotiating construction permits with the cities and counties along the way.… More

Los Angeles opts for gigabit via unicorn to the home

9 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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The City of Los Angeles took the next step toward creating a city-wide, gigabit capable broadband system by issuing a request for proposal, aimed at attracting bids from companies or, presumably, other types of organisations that want to build and operate it.

Earlier this year, Steve Reneker, the city’s general manager of information technology, asked “are we creating a unicorn here?” The answer is unequivocally yes.

The RFP can be summed up as pay us for permission to build a city-wide gigabit network and then give service away for free.… More

Two picks for (what's left of) the summer broadband reading list

23 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for more.

Two good guides to planning and executing municipal broadband projects have been published recently: The Next Generation Network Connectivity Handbook by Blair Levin and Denise Linn, and Connecting 21st Century Communities published by Next Century Cities without authorship credit.

Both offer planning frameworks for both political leaders and city staff interested in either developing local broadband projects – of any sort – or laying the groundwork for others to do so.

[Connecting 21st Century Communities]() is short – 18 pages – and focused on policy alternatives at the local, state and federal level, including dig once ordinances, building codes and streamlined permitting processes.… More

California legislature approves an extra $5 million for broadband consortia

18 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the big picture.

Regional broadband consortia will be getting another $5 million from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), assuming governor Jerry Brown agrees. The state senate unanimously approved a bill yesterday that adds the money to the $10 million already allocated and largely spent by the 17 consortia that cover all but a handful of California’s 58 counties (h/t to Gladys Palpallatoc at CETF for the heads up).

The California Public Utilities Commission starting approving consortia in 2011, after the program was established by the legislature in 2010.… More

Competition will make or, likely, break Pacific Grove muni FTTH business model

The business case for a muni fiber-to-the-home play is the number one worry as the Pacific Grove city council considers whether to pay SiFi Networks about a million dollars a year for the next 30 years to build and operate a system.

At its meeting on Wednesday evening, the council heard a presentation from Lee Afflerbach, principal engineer with CTC Consulting, who was asked to evaluate the technology. The questions afterward, though, were all about the business model: would the system make enough money to pay the lease, or would taxpayers be on the hook?… More