cpuc – Page 2 – Steve Blum's Blog

$23 million in California subsidies for six broadband infrastructure projects ready for CPUC vote

17 November 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, public policy, rdof

Six broadband infrastructure projects asking for $23 million in grants from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) are queued up and ready to go at the California Public Utilities Commission. Assuming all six are blessed by commissioners, that’ll leave $172 million, by my estimate, in the CASF broadband infrastructure grant account. The 48 remaining grant requests total $374 million.

A breakdown of the remaining CASF infrastructure budget and pending projects is here. I’ll update those tables as things change.… More

CPUC’s RDOF kicker goes from incentive to afterthought with yet another delay

16 November 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, public policy, rdof, rural broadband

In an email sent late on Friday, the acting executive director of the California Public Utilities Commission, Rachel Peterson, said most broadband subsidy decisions will be delayed to as late as 31 March 2021, including a proposal to top up bids for federal broadband dollars with money from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).

If it happens at all. She said the “kicker” intended to incentivise bidders for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) will “possibly combine state and federal funding” to “secure broadband deployment for more California residents”.… More

CPUC kicks RDOF kicker decision into January and out of the hunt

13 November 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, public policy, rdof, rural broadband

Hope is dead that bidders for federal broadband money in the ongoing Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction would have certainty or, perhaps, even a clue regarding the California Public Utilities Commission’s supplemental subsidy plan before the auction ends. That means that the incentive value of California’s money is zero for most, if not all, Internet service providers in the reverse auction that’ll determine which communities and states divvy up $16 billion earmarked by the Federal Communications Commission for rural broadband service upgrades.… More

Marginal copper upgrades won’t bring afforable broadband to rural California

6 November 2020 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, cpuc, frontiercommunications, public policy

Fiber matters, particularly in rural California where copper telephone lines are rotting on the poles and where cable companies can’t rake in the high level of monopoly profits they can in denser and richer urban communities.

It’s about speed, capacity and cost.

Technically, it’s possible to push 10 Gbps through some kinds of copper cable under the right conditions. It means operating at the ragged edge of what’s possible, though. Whether a cable or telephone company could actually achieve that in a rural area, given the age of their overall plant, their willingness to invest and the availability of backhaul is an open question that they can’t answer until they actually build it, although they will make promises regardless.… More

Frontier’s broadband monopoly leaves hundreds of thousands of rural Californians without fiber or choices

2 November 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, frontiercommunications, public policy, rural broadband

The California Public Utilities Commission took another run at the numbers and the conclusion is the same: 69,000 low income Californian households live in places where the only wireline telecommunications company is Frontier Communications, which is their sole source for wired broadband service only if Frontier considers it profitable enough to offer it in the first place.

An updated report – a “collection of facts” as the CPUC calls it – was prepared by staff as part of the commission’s review of Frontier’s bankruptcy settlement.… More

CPUC (sorta) offers $73 million subsidy kicker to RDOF bidders

29 October 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, public policy, rdof, rural broadband

Internet service providers that win federal subsidies in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction for particular census block groups (CBGs) may be eligible for at least $73 million in supplemental subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund. And maybe twice that much.

Probably.

Yesterday, the California Public Utilities Commission defined – at least to a useful extent – how much money will be offered as an incentive for ISPs to bid aggressively for RDOF money in Californian CBGs where the digital divide is the widest.… More

With California’s supplemental subsidy proposed but not yet offered, ISPs must risk RDOF subsidy bets tomorrow

28 October 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, public policy, rdof, rural broadband

Update 28 October 2020: The CPUC published a new list of targeted census block groups (CBGs), and clarified its proposed plan to offer additional subsidies to ISPs that successfully bid for RDOF subsidies in those CBGs. The list is here. The updated info about the money is here. The short version is that if the plan is approved by commissioners in December, then the CPUC will offer an amount equal to 10% of the ten year “reserve price” set by the FCC for each CBG – a total of $73 million from CASF – to ISPs that meet the CPUC’s Level 1 service requirements and other qualifications.… More

Broadband needs grow as California’s subsidy fund runs dry

27 October 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, public policy, rdof, rural broadband

There’s about $194 million left for broadband infrastructure upgrades in the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). That’s less than half of pending grant requests, even before possible “kickers” for Internet service providers bidding for federal Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) subsidies are factored in.

It might not be even that much. My estimate includes an optimistic allowance for the cost of running the program, which has increased over time and will likely continue to grow.… More

CPUC updates tentative RDOF incentive plan, as its broadband fund falls short by $77 million

26 October 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, public policy, rdof, rural broadband

The California Public Utilities Commission will put $150 million on the table for Internet service providers to add to their budgets as they bid in a reverse auction for federal Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) subsidies, if a plan proposed by staff is eventually approved by commissioners. Some of the details of that plan were released earlier this month, and a list of census block groups that will be eligible for “kickers” from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) was posted late on Friday.… More

Breaking: California’s RDOF incentive plan released, $150 million offered to bidders in targeted communities. Maybe

23 October 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, public policy, rdof, rural broadband

A list of census block groups eligible for subsidies from both the federal Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and, provisionally, the California Advanced Services Fund was posted on the California Public Utilities Commission’s website late today.

The plan is to make CASF money available to Internet service providers that want to compete for federal subsidies in the neediest Californian communities, in order to incentivise them to bid more aggressively in the RDOF reverse auction. As much as $150 million might be available.… More