cpuc

Feds and Texas say yes to Frontier purchase of Verizon system

15 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Fiber and copper, but no strings.

Frontier Communications’ purchase of Verizon’s wireline telephone systems – copper and fiber – in California, Texas and Florida can go ahead, with no particular conditions attached, according to the Federal Communications Commission. On the whole, the public will benefit from the purchase because Frontier will improve landline broadband service and Verizon won’t, according to the FCC’s order approving the deal…

We conclude that Frontier is more likely to accelerate broadband service in the transaction market areas than Verizon would be absent the transaction, and that this potential for acceleration represents a tangible public interest benefit.

… More

ViaSat bid for California broadband subsidies rejected

14 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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There’s a difference between ambition and greed.

Nearly three years after it was first submitted, ViaSat’s proposal to deliver broadband service to a stunningly large swath of western and southern California is officially dead. The company had asked the California Public Utilities Commission for $11.1 million to buy satellite dishes and receivers for people living in underserved areas from the Oregon border, south along the coast and the western side of the central valley, to the Mexican border, and east to Arizona.… More

Fiber middle mile link proposed for small California mountain community

12 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the big picture.

The tiny eastern California community of Kennedy Meadows could be in line for a broadband capacity upgrade. The Ducor Telephone Company is asking the California Public Utilities Commission for $1.6 million from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to build a fiber line from Kennedy Meadows to the Digital 395 route that runs along the eastern side of the Sierra, between Reno and Barstow.

According to the publicly available summary, Ducor’s microwave link has hit capacity and there’s no practical way to improve it…

Currently, network facilities serving the region cannot deliver acceptable levels of broadband service.

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Projects, policies and plans for broadband development on California's central coast

6 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the presentation.

Broadband projects and policy are moving ahead on California’s central coast. That was my message to a meeting with elected officials from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, convened in June by the Central Coast Broadband Consortium (CCBC).

The project with the biggest impact on the region is the middle mile link between Santa Cruz and Soledad, which is being built by Sunesys and largely paid for by the California Public Utilities Commission via the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).… More

Charter takeover of Time Warner would be anticompetitive, protests say

3 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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Maybe Comcast and Charter will get a junction named after them too.

Charter Communication’s bid to buy two rival cable companies, Time Warner and Bright House, appears headed down the same rhetorical highway that led to the death of Comcast’s similar attempt earlier this year. At least in California.

Three formal protests were filed against Charter’s request for approval of the deal from the California Public Utilities Commission, by the CPUC’s own office of ratepayer advocates (ORA) and various advocacy organisations.… More

CPUC endorses extending lifeline tax to broadband service

2 September 2015 by Steve Blum
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One of the ways that broadband service and infrastructure is subsidised is through universal service taxes paid by consumers on their telephone bills, both in California and at the federal level. Broadband itself, however, is not taxed in that way.

Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission decided that broadband is a telecommunications service that, to one extent or another, falls under common carrier rules and universal service obligations previously reserved for traditional telephone service. At the time, there was the usual partisan bickering over whether the FCC intended to use the new rules to extend universal service taxes to broadband.… More

CPUC will investigate AT&T, Verizon wireline network conditions

30 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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How much of it looks like this?

The condition of AT&T’s and Verizon’s copper telephone networks in California will be independently examined. By a vote of 4 to 1, the California Public Utilities Commission decided to speed up an existing study of wireline systems in the state, instead of scrapping it altogether.

That study has been in the works since 2011. It isn’t popular with AT&T or Verizon, which put up vociferous opposition, or with CPUC president Michael Picker, who voted against it on Thursday.… More

Possible agreement at the CPUC to investigate AT&T, Verizon networks

26 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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A streamlined version of a decision aimed at accelerating an investigation of AT&T’s and Verizon’s wireline networks is on the table at the California Public Utilities Commission.

The debate surrounds a study of wireline network quality that has been in the works at the CPUC since 2011. Commission president Michael Picker wants to cancel the investigation, an idea that Verizon and AT&T greeted with wild enthusiasm.

Two other commissioners – Mike Florio and Catherine Sandoval – weren’t so enamoured and offered an alternate draft that 1.… More

Verizon says screw you California (and Texas and Florida), we're not gonna upgrade

24 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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Frontier says it’ll try, Verizon says fuhgeddaboudit.

Verizon is finally saying flat out that it’s not going to improve its pitiful wireline infrastructure in California, and in particular it’s not going to upgrade any more copper telephone systems to modern broadband standards or capabilities. That’s probably not the intent of a joint filing made by Verizon and Frontier at the FCC as the two companies try to gain approval for their pending transaction. But it’s the plain meaning of what was said.… More

Verizon ordered to explain why copper is rotting in California

21 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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What was the question?

Verizon will have to explain, on paper and in person, why its copper telephone networks are rotting on the poles in California. A California Public Utility Commission administrative law judge (ALJ) conducting hearings into Frontier Communications proposed purchase of the company’s wireline systems has ordered Verizon to…

Prepare…a comprehensive report on the current condition of [the Verizon land line network] and the cost and extent of repairs required to bring the Network into compliance with Commission-imposed standards of safety and reliability, and to make available for cross-examination at the evidentiary hearings a person or persons most knowledgeable regarding the contents of that report.

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