cpuc

DISH has spectrum for urban people and rural land, but maybe not for rural Californians

13 August 2019 by Steve Blum
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Dish aws3 spectrum per allnet insights and analytics via fiercewireless

Analysis done by Allnet Insights & Analytics for FierceWireless raises doubts about whether the settlement reached by the federal justice department with T-Mobile, Sprint and their new partner, DISH, will make a meaningful difference in rural California. The question is whether DISH has enough of the right kind of spectrum to offer the same kind of fast, high capacity broadband service it might in urban areas to California’s particular kind of rural communities.

The analysis and accompanying maps, as presented in an excellent article by Monics Alleven, “suggest DISH owns a lot of spectrum”.… More

With Frontier in free fall, California needs a Plan B

Frontier stock chart 8aug2019

Frontier Communications’ strategy of upgrading fiber speeds for high income, urban customers, and letting poor, rural ones rely on slow, wireless broadband systems didn’t seem to make an impression on Wall Street. The company’s stock price lost nearly 25% of its already diminished value after the release of second quarter 2019 results on Tuesday.

Even before this latest crash, a study by the California Public Utilities Commission concluded that Frontier is sinking in California, and it’s time to start thinking about what happens next…

While Frontier’s priorities are in maintaining and growing its [legacy telephone] properties, the company’s financial resources have become so deteriorated as to threaten its ongoing ability to pursue these priorities going forward.

… More

Frontier CEO confirms affluent, urban communities to get 1,000X better broadband than poor, rural ones

Frontier 2q2019 broadband results

On Tuesday, Frontier Communications’ CEO confirmed the findings of a California Public Utilities Commission study that concluded that Frontier (as well as AT&T) is “disinvesting in infrastructure overall”, and the disinvestment is “most pronounced in the more rural and low-income service areas”. The company released its financial results for the second quarter of this year on Tuesday, announcing a $5.3 billion loss for the three months and 71,000 fewer broadband subscribers.

Most of the lost accounts – 46,000 – were DSL customers, served, at least in California, via decaying copper networks Frontier acquired from Verizon.… More

A decade late and megabucks short, Kern County fiber project gets environmental approval

7 August 2019 by Steve Blum
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Caltrans slow 2

After ten years of review, the California Public Utilities Commission is about to approve environmental clearances for a middle mile fiber project in Kern County, subsidised by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). Mediacom, a cable company that owns a handful of scattered systems in remote parts of California, applied for a $286,000 CASF grant in 2009, intending to build a 32 mile middle mile fiber route from Inyokern – an unincorporated community along U.S. 395 near Ridgecrest – to its system that serves the Lake Isabella area in eastern Kern County.… More

Wrangling over T-Mobile’s federal antitrust settlement continues in California

6 August 2019 by Steve Blum
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Two organisations that largely make their living objecting to utility company requests at the California Public Utilities Commission, and then billing the company involved or the CPUC for their time, filed a me too response yesterday to T-Mobile’s bid to speed up review of its proposed merger with Sprint.

T-Mobile, Sprint and DISH reached an agreement a couple of weeks ago that satisfied anti-trust objections raised by the federal justice department. The deal would let T-Mobile take over Sprint, while DISH would get reseller rights on the new network, and spectrum and retail assets to eventually build a competing system.… More

“Hunger games” duels for broadband subsidies proposed by FCC

5 August 2019 by Steve Blum
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Hunger games

Broadband subsidies from the Federal Communications Commission are paid for out of the Universal Service Fund" (USF) which, in turn, gets its money from taxes on telephone bills. The FCC runs four programs that way: the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (formerly known as the Connect America Fund), the e-rate program that pays for broadband service to schools and libraries, the rural health care program, which does the same for hospitals, and the Lifeline program, which buys down service costs for low income households.… More

T-Mobile tempo goes from waltz to tango at CPUC

1 August 2019 by Steve Blum
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Tango

T-Mobile’s request for rapid approval of its merger with Sprint and sale of assets to DISH got a staccato response from opponents at the California Public Utilities Commission, but the next step won’t necessarily follow that rhythm. The CPUC’s public advocates office and the Communications Workers of America – a major telecoms industry union – filed their objections yesterday, just three working days after T-Mobile’s motion was submitted.

The objections fall mainly into two categories: procedural and substantive.… More

T-Mobile’s proposed drop kick of employees to DISH might boomerang in California

30 July 2019 by Steve Blum
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Feral kid boomerang

T-Mobile bought out another opponent to its merger with Sprint, but could have hurt its chances of gaining regulatory approval in California.

Following its deal to get resale, retail and spectrum assets from T-Mobile, DISH filed a request yesterday with the California Public Utilities Commission to withdraw its opposition to the merger, saying its agreement with T-Mobile and the federal justice department “will facilitate and accelerate DISH’s entry into the wireless market as a fourth nationwide facilities-based mobile network operator thus solving the harms of the reduction in competition” caused by the merger.… More

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

Money talks or AT&T broadband walks, CPUC study shows

25 July 2019 by Steve Blum
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Haas att broadband study

How much money you and your neighbors make determines whether or not you have access to modern broadband service and infrastructure. The network practices study released on Monday by the California Public Utilities Commission cites conclusive evidence of aggressive redlining by AT&T. It is a major – and actionable – report that makes the case against the two companies, but its conclusions come as no surprise.

A study done in 2017 by U.C. Berkeley’s Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society found that…

The median household income of California communities with access to AT&T’s fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network is $94,208.

… More