cpuc

Charter continues fight against broadband upgrades in low income California communities

24 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Monopolising low income communities and soaking residents for expensive television and broadband service packages seems to be a key element in Charter Communications business strategy, and it’s continuing its fight against broadband subsidies that might break that stranglehold.

Even in places where it has twice challenged broadband grants, and twice lost.

Charter wants to block two broadband infrastructure projects – one in Santa Cruz County and one in Kern County – approved by the California Public Utilities Commission for subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) last year.… More

FCC revises subsidy rules, won’t zonk California because of our low broadband standards

19 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Monty hall

The Federal Communications Commission approved a small do-over to the rules for its new broadband subsidy program, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). Instead of blocking subsidies to any area where state broadband dollars are being spent, it will only do so where the money is paying for service at a minimum of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds.

That’s good new for California. Our primary broadband subsidy program – the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) – deems communities with broadband at the achingly slow rate of 6 Mbps down/1 Mbps up as adequately served, and only requires grant recipients who build infrastructure with state money to hit the barely better speed of 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up.… More

Federal judge matters not to California’s review of T-Mobile/Sprint deal, CPUC told

13 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Fred gwynne judge

Opposition to the T-Mobile/Sprint merger is alive and kicking in California, as the California Public Utilities Commission’s review continues. The primary opponents of the deal – the CPUC’s public advocates office, the consumer advocacy groups TURN and the Greenlining Institute, and the Communications Workers of America union – replied to T-Mobile’s plea for immediate approval yesterday.

Like T-Mobile, the group – AKA joint advocates – made their position known in an email addressed to the CPUC commissioner and administrative law judge who are in charge of the case.… More

CPUC, Becerra yet to bless T-Mobile/Sprint deal, as California’s review extends to end of March or later

12 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Tmobile billboard 2 las vegas 6jan2020

T-Mobile’s proposed takeover of Sprint was approved by federal judge Victor Marrero in New York yesterday. That leaves a separate, and more focused, federal court case in Washington, D.C. and the California Public Utilities Commission’s review as the final regulatory hurdles that the merger must clear.

Yesterday was also the 30-day public review deadline for the CPUC to post a draft decision that could be considered at its 12 March 2020 meeting. That didn’t happen, so the soonest the CPUC could approve or deny the merger will be at its 26 March 2020 meeting, unless 1.… More

DISH ordered to answer detailed questions about California plans as CPUC extends review of T-Mobile/Sprint merger

5 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Dish ces press conference 2012

DISH must provide detailed information about its plans for infrastructure, service and employees in California, before the California Public Utilities Commission moves ahead with its review of the proposed T-Mobile/Sprint merger. The administrative law judge managing the case, Karl Bemesderfer, ordered DISH to “immediately provide substantive responses” to questions posed by the CPUC’s public advocates office (PAO). Links to the questions are below.

Bemesderfer’s order overruled DISH’s objections and the limitations it wants to put on the information it delivers.… More

California gets a zonk from the FCC’s new broadband subsidy program

4 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Zonk

The final language of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to launch a new broadband subsidy program could cause headaches in California. The FCC approved the new $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program last week, apparently with eligibility rule changes to the draft version published earlier in January.

In remarks prepared for the meeting, commission Geoffrey Starks flagged new language that would exclude places that are getting broadband subsidies from other sources…

I cannot support provisions of the Order that penalize the many states that have made their own investments in rural broadband deployment.

… More

$16 billion in broadband subsidies up for auction in November

31 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission will begin the process of handing out $16 billion in broadband service subsidies in November, with another $4.4 billion coming sometime later. Commissioners approved the new Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program at their meeting in Washington, D.C. yesterday. They set the minimum standard for acceptable broadband service at 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds: any census block that completely lacks access to service at that speed level will eligible for subsidies in November.… More

CPUC decision on T-Mobile/Sprint merger fades to March or later, as state attorneys general ask DC judge to wait

29 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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Tmobile store la 23oct2019

The California Public Utilities Commission won’t vote on approving – or not – T-Mobile’s takeover of Sprint until mid-March at the earliest, assuming there’s no extraordinary attempt to speed up a decision. Yesterday was the 30-day deadline for posting a draft decision ahead of the commission’s 27 February 2020 voting meeting.

After that, the next scheduled meeting is on 12 March 2020. There’s no particular reason, though, to expect a draft decision to be published in time to make that meeting.… More

CPUC asks for more time to adapt to FCC broadband subsidy program, but doesn’t say how

28 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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Paicines pole route

The FCC is heading toward a vote on Thursday that would raise its eligibility and minimum service standards for broadband subsidies to 25 down/3 Mbps up and award $20 billion in broadband subsidies as quickly as possible, perhaps in a single reverse auction in November. That’s welcome progress and a great thing for states that either have rational broadband policies or have no interest in broadband policy at all.

But not so great for California, which has irrational broadband subsidy policies.… More

Internet magic means phone calls aren’t phone calls, AT&T tells CPUC

27 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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Alice tall 625

We’re all mad here.

On Thursday in San Francisco, AT&T defended itself against charges that it’s in contempt of California Public Utilities Commission orders and that it broke CPUC rules and state law. AT&T is admitting that California law no longer bars the CPUC from regulating Internet protocol enabled service such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), but doesn’t appear to be giving up the fight. Instead, it’s falling back to a second line of defence that was thoughtfully provided by the Federal Communications Commission.… More