cpuc

Frontier must upgrade broadband for 800,000 Californians in order to buy Verizon systems

9 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Frontier will have a lot of Verizon mess to clean up.

Frontier Communications will be able to buy Verizon’s wireline systems in California, if it almost doubles the number of homes and businesses that will get new or upgraded broadband service, and if the California Public Utilities Commission votes yes on the proposed decision approving the deal drafted by administrative law judge Karl Bemesderfer and released on Friday.

Relying on a stack of agreements between Frontier and various advocacy groups and the CPUC’s office of ratepayer advocates, an opinion by the state attorney general that the deal “will not adversely impact competition”, and evidence gathered during the several months the sale has been under review, Bemesderfer’s proposed decision would find that it meets the requirements of California public utilities law.… More

California mountain community requests $759K for FTTH

8 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the big picture.

A fiber to the home project in the Tahoe Basin in eastern Placer County has been proposed for a construction subsidy from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). Submitted by Inyo Networks – one of the companies involved in the Digital 395 network in eastern California – the grant application asks for $759,000, which is 70% of the total $1.1 million project cost…

The proposed Alpine Peaks Broadband Project will serve a designated “Priority Area” community in the Upper Ward Canyon area of eastern Placer County.

… More

Plenty of broadband money for some in rural California, if there's cooperation

4 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Worlds apart.

If the two primary California and federal broadband subsidy programs – the California Advanced Services Fund and the FCC’s Connect America Fund – were coordinated, many rural areas could see significant infrastructure upgrades. Maybe even fiber to the home systems, or at least fiber to the node. As it is, though, those two programs run completely separately, even to the point of having such disparate service standards that broadband systems built for one wouldn’t necessarily meet the requirements of the other.… More

Frontier to offer broadband lifeline service in California, if allowed to buy Verizon systems

3 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Lifeline’s reach, if the deal goes through.

Frontier Communications will implement an interim low income broadband lifeline program in California, if it gets regulatory approval to buy Verizon’s wireline systems. In an agreement reached with the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF), Frontier is promising to offer a special package to its voice lifeline customers that comprises…

  • 13.99/month for the low-income broadband service (which is a new affordable product for the Verizon service area and an improved product in the Frontier legacy service areas), available only to Lifeline voice customers, existing or new customers.
… More

California broadband follows people, not land

30 October 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the full picture.

It’s easy to think that the California you see is the California you have. If you live and work in, say, the Bay Area or Los Angeles, California is a mix of freeways, strip malls and offices packed with creative, tech savvy people. That view, or something not far from it, is what 95% of Californians see. But it’s only 5% of the state.

The other 5% of Californians and 95% of the state is rural.… More

Verizon's California copper will rot if it isn't sold

21 October 2015 by Steve Blum
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Not much incentive to spend on copper.

Verizon’s wireline future is fiber, not copper. That’s the takeaway from yesterday’s quarterly earnings call, where Fran Shammo, Verizon’s chief financial officer, talked up the company’s wireless plans, and said that selling its mostly copper systems in California (and Florida and Texas) was a good move strategically, because the company’s wireline investments are focused on fiber…

Most of that property was copper, not fiber. So when we look at the East Coast, it’s a much different footprint.

… More

Charter charges Salinas Valley high price for 1980s TV

20 October 2015 by Steve Blum
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Gonzales gets the facts of life.

If you live in Watsonville, California, you can go to Charter Communications’ website and find a triple play package that gives you 60 Mbps download speeds, more than 200 channels of television, HD included, a digital video recorder and unlimited long distance calling for as little as $70 a month. There are strings attached at that price point, but it’s still a pretty good deal.
If you live in the Salinas Valley, 40 miles to the south in Gonzales, it’s a different story.… More

Surfnet takes another try in the Santa Cruz mountains

19 October 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for a bigger picture.

Los Cumbres is a private community in the Santa Cruz mountains with old-style DSL service. Surfnet Communications, a wireless Internet service provider in the area, is asking the California Public Utilities Commission for a $730,000 grant and a $243,000 loan from the California Advanced Services Fund to build a fiber to the home system there.

The project would reach something like 180 homes, at a total cost of $1.2 million, with the balance paid by the Las Cumbres homeowners association and Surfnet.… More

Governor Brown says CPUC reforms needed, but not the ones passed by the legislature

13 October 2015 by Steve Blum
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These aren’t the bills I’m looking for.

Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed five bills that would have changed the way the California Public Utilities Commission does business. The announcement was made on Friday, two days before the constitutional deadline.

AB 825, AB 1023 and SB 48 would have required more disclosure, via web postings, of both the commission’s work and those who have business before it. SB 48 would have also changed some of the ethics and procedural rules the commission operates under, and require it meet at least six times a year in Sacramento.… More

Governor Brown approves shot clock for wireless facilities permits, vetoes CPUC reform bills

9 October 2015 by Steve Blum
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Assembly bill 57 will become law. Governor Brown announced today that he signed the measure, which would give local governments five months to make a decision on permit applications for new wireless facilities, and three months to decide on additions to existing facilities. If the application is still pending when the clock runs out, it’ll be deemed approved.

Brown vetoed four bills that would have made various changes to the way the California Public Utilities Commission conducts its business, including senate bill 660, which would have put tighter limits on closed door conversations between commissioners (and key staffers) and people with business that’s in front of the commission.