cpuc

Frontier and competitive carriers agree, at least regarding telephone service in California

8 October 2015 by Steve Blum
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Frontier says terms won’t change for now.

Most of the issues between Frontier Communications and competitive local exchange carriers in California regarding Frontier’s proposed purchase of Verizon’s wireline telephone systems have been worked out. A settlement agreement was filed with the California Public Utilities Commission that addresses most of the objections that CLECs raised regarding the deal.

Boiled down, most of the settlement consists of Frontier saying it’ll honor Verizon’s current contracts with CLECs and keep current terms and interconnection agreements in effect for at least three years.… More

Charter tells New York regulators it'll upgrade redlined residents if it's allow to buy Time Warner

6 October 2015 by Steve Blum
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As in California, Charter Communications is asking New York state regulators for permission to buy Time Warner cable systems. New York Public Service Commission staff have identified markets where both companies operate, but have not fully built out digital systems, and are recommending, among other things, that Charter be required to upgrade all of its customers – old and new – if the deal is allowed to go through…

New Charter should be required to develop a strategic implementation plan to build-out its all-digital network to the remaining unserved or under-served Charter and Time Warner franchise areas in New York.

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New CPUC rules spell out proper behavior for commissioners

5 October 2015 by Steve Blum
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No chewing gum, either.

Follow the law, do your job and be polite. That’s the boiled down substance of most of a six page code of conduct that was approved last week by the California Public Utilities Commission. It applies to the commissioners themselves and they voted unanimously in favor of it, after developing it in committee meetings over the past few months. The document repeatedly admonishes commissioners to be respectful, to be civil and professional, and to “refrain from belligerent comments, shouting, or actions that could be construed as threatening or intimidating”.… More

FCC muni preemption decision could limit California broadband oversight

1 October 2015 by Steve Blum
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CPUC’s broadband authority depends on federal law.

Tennessee and North Carolina are challenging the FCC’s ruling earlier this year that preempted state restrictions on municipal broadband. The central argument is whether congress gave the FCC sufficient authority to override what is usually reckoned to be the ironclad state responsibility of telling local governments what they can and can’t do. The FCC based its ruling on section 706 of the telecommunications act of 1996, which says…

The Commission and each State commission with regulatory jurisdiction over telecommunications services shall encourage the deployment on a reasonable and timely basis of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans…by utilizing, in a manner consistent with the public interest, convenience, and necessity, price cap regulation, regulatory forbearance, measures that promote competition in the local telecommunications market, or other regulating methods that remove barriers to infrastructure investment.

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Charter CFO paints rosier than real merger schedule for investors

30 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Sure, dude. How fast do you want it?

You gotta love optimists. Christopher Winfrey, the chief financial officer of Charter Communications, is telling investors that the proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks will be done and dusted by the end of the year. That jet propelled schedule is fuelled by the assumption that the Federal Communications Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission know everything they need to know already, because it’s the same bunch of companies that were involved in the failed Comcast mega-merger, minus Comcast.… More

No surprises as CPUC begins review of Charter-Time Warner-Bright House deal

29 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Charter Communications is asking the California Public Utilities Commission for permission to buy cable systems belonging to Time Warner and Bright House Networks. Yesterday saw the opening round of wrangling over the transaction, with a CPUC administrative law judge hearing from lawyers representing the companies involved on the one side, and representatives from the CPUC’s office of ratepayer advocates, consumer lobbying groups and a couple of cities on the other (full disclosure: one of those representatives was me).… More

Frontier's middle mile will solve some of Verizon's last mile woes, says CFO

23 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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It looked like this in 2011. Click for a bigger view.

Connecting Frontier Communication’s existing national fiber backbone to the Californian telephone systems it plans to buy from Verizon might be enough to greatly improve speeds. That’s what John Jureller, Frontier’s chief financial officer, told an investment conference last week. According to a story by Sean Buckley in FierceTelecom, Jureller said…

“What we have found as we have gotten deeper and deeper into our integration, it has got a well enabled network backbone that might have been built out with DSL at one point with technology that might have been two generations ago,” Jureller said.

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Comcast buys process error plea bargain for $33 million

20 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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A customer care associate will be right with you.

About 75,000 telephone service customers who paid Comcast extra to keep their phone numbers unlisted and out of the hands of telemarketers and fraudsters did so in vain between 2010 and 2012. Via a convoluted process that involved third party licensing and directory companies, as well as its own in-house listing service, Comcast sold their information and published it online. According to a set of stipulated facts agreed by Comcast, the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Attorney General’s office…

Comcast has explained that, in connection with a system-wide account number change in California that occurred in October and December 2009, a significant portion of those California customers who elected non-published status prior to December 2009 were mistakenly not flagged as “non-published” and thus were made available for publishing in July 2010 via Neustar.

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U.S. cable industry's rush to consolidate continues

18 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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How the game is played.

Altice SA announced an agreement to buy Cablevision for $17.7 billion and assumption of existing debt yesterday. That follows Altice’s ongoing bid to buy a controlling stake in Suddenlink. If both deals are approved and Charter is allowed to take over Time Warner and Bright House, then Altice would become the fourth largest cable company in the U.S., and the seventh largest pay TV company overall, with about 4 million subscribers.… More

Legislators vote for fewer chats between CPUC and utilities

16 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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One drink too many.

Several changes to the way the California Public Utilities Commission operates are on Governor Brown’s desk. The California legislature passed several bills that would tighten the rules for who commissioners can talk to while proceedings are underway – formally known as ex parte communications – require more public disclosure and make other administrative changes.

The major changes are in senate bill 660, authored by Ben Hueso (D – Chula Vista) and Mark Leno (D – San Francisco).… More