cpuc

Frontier says California approval delayed is funding denied

8 July 2015 by Steve Blum
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Let’s hope there will be something to celebrate come New Year’s Eve.

It’s worth $192 million to rural areas of the state if the California Public Utilities Commission sticks to the schedule it set for reviewing Frontier Communications’ proposed purchase of Verizon’s wireline telephone systems. That’s one of the significant points of a joint response made by the two companies to questions posed by the Federal Communications Commission as it also reviews the transaction.

Frontier says it will use state and federal subsidies to upgrade broadband infrastructure in California…

If Frontier is able to obtain regulatory approvals for the Transaction prior to December 31, 2015, it will utilize available funding for broadband deployment in the high cost areas within the Transferring Companies’ territories.

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Verizon offers yet another reason to be glad we're in California

7 July 2015 by Steve Blum
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Watch out, come harvest season.

The usual suspects are viewing Frontier Communication’s purchase of Verizon’s wireline business in California with alarm, but maybe we should be counting our blessings. Out east, Verizon’s deployment of fiber to the home service seems to be falling short of the benchmarks it promised New York City it would meet.

According to a story in TechDirt (h/t to the Baller-Herbst list for the pointer), Verizon deployed its FiOS plant to about half the homes promised, and not the half that really needed the upgrade.… More

Charter won't promise to offer broadband in redlined communities

29 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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This isn’t where the other 99% live.

If you live in the bottom 1% of Charter Communications service area, you’re not getting broadband access or, indeed, anything other than poor analog video service from the company. The message from Charter is those redlined communities – among the poorest and most isolated in California – won’t be upgraded to 21st century digital systems anytime soon.

Charter tries to weasel its way around that issue in its initial filing with the Federal Communications Commission, as it seeks permission to buy Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.… More

Frontier's ability to deliver, particularly broadband, will be evaluated by CPUC

28 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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Frontier Communications’ proposed purchase of Verizon’s wireline telephone systems in California is under review by the California Public Utilities Commission, which has to decide if the deal is in the public interest. Catherine Sandoval is the commissioner assigned to lead the review, and she’s laid out a broad basis for doing it, stating that it’s not just the interests of Verizon’s current customers that matter, instead “at the least, we must be able to say that the proposed transaction is overall net beneficial in its impact on the various affected constituencies.… More

CPUC will wait another month to vote on establishing broadband jurisdiction

27 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission kicked the Comcast can down the road a month. It was supposed to take up two competing proposals for closing out Comcast’s failed purchase of Time Warner’s cable systems and market swaps with Charter this week, but the decision was pushed off to the commission’s 23 July 2015 meeting. A third alternative is also expected to be on the agenda that day.

The options in front of the CPUC are…

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Suddenlink tries to avoid going down the same regulatory review path as Comcast

26 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for the full picture.

The purchase of Suddenlink Communications – the seventh largest cable operator in the U.S. and a significant video and Internet service provider in rural California – by a European company, Altice, is officially under review by the California Public Utilities Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.

As is typical with the initial applications, the companies are claiming there’s not much to worry about and approval should be quick and simple.… More

Petrolia project shows how middle mile subsidies boost last mile speeds

21 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for more maps and financials.

Frontier Communications is asking the California Public Utilities Commission for $203,000 from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to pay for 60% of the cost of upgrading a microwave link between the tiny and remote Humboldt County town of Petrolia and high capacity fiber backhaul to the north in Ferndale. The application made it through the review process, and is now scheduled to be voted on by the CPUC next month.

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CPUC offered opportunity to duck broadband responsibilities

18 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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The third way.

The California Public Utilities Commission has a third option for closing out the failed Comcast-Time Warner-Charter mega mash up. In response to a request from the companies involved, a CPUC administrative law judge has drafted yet another proposed decision that basically calls it all off, with a couple of housekeeping conditions.

Chief among those conditions is a requirement that the companies turn over digital copies of documents they previously provided to the Federal Communications Commission.… More

No decision yet on investigating the condition of California copper

11 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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A bid by CPUC president Michael Picker to stop an investigation into the state of AT&T’s and Verizon’s copper networks in California is on hold until late next month. The California Public Utilities Commission was due to vote on whether to cancel that network study this morning, but commissioner Catherine Sandoval asked that it be delayed until 23 July 2015. She’s the second commissioner to ask for more time to consider it – Mike Florio was the first – and she’s the one heading up a series of public meetings aimed at finding out what’s going on with Verizon’s network, as part of the CPUC’s review of Frontier Communications’ purchase of those wireline systems.

Charter bid to buy Time Warner could widen California's digital divide

11 June 2015 by Steve Blum
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If Charter Communications is successful in its attempt to buy Time Warner Cable and Bright House Communications, it will control about half of the Californian broadband market, and low income households will make up a disproportionately high share of that expanded customer base.

Comcast’s failed attempt to buy Time Warner (including Time Warner’s ownership interest in Bright House) and swap markets with Charter would have given it control of 84% of the broadband market in California, according to an analysis done by the California Public Utilities Commission’s office of ratepayer advocates (ORA).… More