cpuc

Comments on proposed changes to California's broadband subsidy program posted

17 March 2018 by Steve Blum
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Fourteen organisations offered comments on Friday regarding California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant requirements and application procedures for public housing broadband facilities and for broadband adoption efforts, which are generally reckoned to be digital literacy classes and “broadband access” programs – i.e. computer centers, hotspots and free computers – programs. Suggestions for how the CASF broadband infrastructure loan program should be wound down were also submitted.

The new adoption grant program, and the revisions to the public housing and infrastructure loan programs were mandated by assembly bill 1665, which was approved by the California legislature and signed into law last year.… More

FCC will have to defend net neutrality repeal in San Francisco

12 March 2018 by Steve Blum
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The luck of the draw means the future of network neutrality and broadband’s status as a common carrier service will be argued in San Francisco. Credit for that is split between the California Public Utilities Commission and Santa Clara County, who filed separate challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to eliminate net neutrality rules and scrap common carrier obligations for broadband service with the ninth circuit federal appeals court.

Several other organisations filed their appeals in Washington, D.C.,… More

Wrangling over electric company fiber continues at CPUC

6 March 2018 by Steve Blum
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Both Southern California Edison and TURN, a consumer advocacy group, are lobbying the California Public Utilities Commission in the hope of pressing home their respective arguments about how much money generated from telecoms services, such as dark fiber leasing, privately owned electric companies can keep. The narrow issue that’s on the table is a master fiber lease agreement between SCE and Verizon that needs to be approved by the CPUC, but it could have far reaching effects on how, or even if, electric companies pursue telecoms opportunities and ultimately on the availability of independent long haul dark fiber in California.… More

CPUC not ready to cripple dark fiber competition just yet

4 March 2018 by Steve Blum
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No decision so far from the California Public Utilities Commission regarding changing the rules of the game for privately owned electric companies when they engage in dark fiber leasing and other telecoms business activities. The commission was scheduled to vote Thursday on a draft decision that, as currently written, would require Southern California Edison to give 75% of the gross revenue it gets from leasing out dark fiber to its electric customers. Up until now, it’s only had to hand over 10% of gross telecoms revenue to ratepayers.… More

California line extension subsidy program sends money to cable companies via low income homes

20 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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When lobbyists for big telcos and cable companies rewrote California’s primary broadband infrastructure subsidy program – the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) – last year, they carefully maximised the money they’d get while minimising, even eliminating, independent competition and inconvenient rules.

One of the perks approved by lawmakers is particularly pleasing to the cable lobbyists who asked for it: a money laundering scheme that allows them to get broadband construction subsidies without the need for any annoying oversight or other regulatory entanglement with the California Public Utilities Commission, which gives out the grants.… More

CPUC considers giving broadband subsidy priority to low income areas

16 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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One-third or more of broadband infrastructure subsidies would go to low income areas, if the California Public Utilities Commission adopts new rules proposed by staff for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). Although the draft rewrite published on Wednesday by commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves is just the starting point for a debate that won’t be resolved until the end of the year, it is consistent with comments that she and other commissioners have made on many occasions.… More

CPUC begins rewrite of California broadband infrastructure subsidy rules

15 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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California’s broadband primary infrastructure program, the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), is in for an overhaul by the California Public Utilities Commission. Last year, the California legislature passed and governor Jerry Brown signed assembly bill 1665, which pumped more money into the fund but also placed severe, incumbent-centric restrictions on how it can be spent.

It’s up to the CPUC, though, to decide the detailed objectives, rules and procedures for the program. Yesterday, commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves posted a scoping memo and ruling, which outlines extensive changes proposed by CPUC staff, and a schedule for reaching a decision.… More

Competitive dark fiber gets a reprieve in California

8 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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A proposal to flip – and maybe kill – the business model for dark fiber enterprises run by private electric utilities is on hold at the California Public Utilities Commission. It was pulled off today’s CPUC agenda by commission president Michael Picker and tentatively rescheduled for March.

Last year, Southern California Edison asked for permission to do a master fiber lease deal with Verizon. It seemed to be routine. SCE has been negotiating dark fiber leases on terms established by the CPUC for nearly 20 years.… More

CPUC considers crippling electric utilities' competitive fiber business

31 January 2018 by Steve Blum
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Dark fiber owned by private electric utilities in California could be more strictly regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission. A proposed decision, due for a vote by commissioners at next week’s meeting, would rewrite the rules that have governed Southern California Edison’s dark fiber business for the past twenty years. It only applies to one particular transaction for now, but it has serious implications for Pacific Gas and Electric’s telecoms ambitions in northern California, and for communities and competitive broadband providers that need an independent source of dark fiber, particularly for long haul, inter-city connections.… More

Now it's trial lawyers who are tagged as California's broadband cops

23 January 2018 by Steve Blum
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Update: SB 460 has been bucked to the California senate’s judiciary committee, where it’s due for a hearing tomorrow morning (Wednesday, 24 Jan 2018).

The latest version of a bill that aims to reinstate a network neutrality regime in California allows consumers to sue broadband companies that don’t abide by the three “bright line rules” that were thrown out last month by the Federal Communications Commission: no blocking, throttling or paid prioritisation.

The California senate’s appropriations committee’s endorsement of senate bill 460 last week included a promise to find a more appropriate net neutrality enforcer than the California Public Utilities Commission, as originally planned.… More