cpuc

CPUC to FCC: Comcast's proposed mega-merger poses particular problems for California

4 September 2014 by Steve Blum
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California knows fit characters.

The California Public Utilities Commission is urging the FCC to consider Comcast’s “character and fitness to hold FCC licenses or authorizations”, particularly in light of an ongoing enquiry into its admitted publication of confidential subscriber information. That’s one of the highlights of comments the CPUC filed with the FCC regarding its review of the proposed merger of Comcast and Time-Warner. (H/T to UCSC’s Jim Warner for the heads up – I was slacking off in the Sierra when this went down.… More

Mobile operators are short term cure, long term cause of broadband divide

Wireline upgrades get low priority on the wrong side of the divide.

Mobile broadband networks are increasingly ubiquitous throughout the world, and are the most widely used way of accessing the Internet in developing countries. But that’s despite high costs and stingy caps on data transfer. As a solution for increasing primary household access to broadband and encouraging people to use it, mobile networks have limited potential, according to a South African broadband policy study…

Of the access mechanisms, mobile coverage is the most extensive, but mobile broadband access is limited to lucrative urban areas and data costs are relatively high.

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$160 million still available for broadband infrastructure subsidies in California

26 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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When the California Public Utilities Commission starts accepting applications for broadband infrastructure grants later this year, there will be something like $160 million available to hand out. That’s my estimate, based on the amount approved to date and expected administrative costs.

The overall cap on the California Advanced Services Fund is $315 million. Of that, $10 million is set aside for infrastructure loans, $10 million for regional consortia and $25 million for public housing projects.… More

California cable TV franchise renewals still behind closed doors

25 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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Double secret probation.

A bare sliver of light will shine on cable (and telephone) companies when they renew statewide video franchises every 10 years. The California Public Utilities Commission is considering a process that effectively shuts out meaningful public scrutiny of cable companies when they file for renewal. The CPUC’s reasoning is that in writing California’s Digital Information and Video Competition Act, usually referred to as DIVCA, the legislature set a very low bar for granting and, consequently, renewing the statewide video franchises that replaced the original city-by-city and county-by-county process in 2006.… More

Broadband infrastructure can – and sometimes will – be regulated in California

16 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission is squarely back in the game of regulating broadband service providers, at least up to a point. That was the second shot across the bow fired in a ruling on Thursday ruling by a CPUC administrative law judge. In it, the commission declared that it would use broad powers it believes was granted by federal law to “remove barriers to [broadband] infrastructure investment”, as well as state law that charges it with deciding whether mergers it clearly does regulate – in this case, involving subsidiaries that provide telephone service – are in the public interest…

The ultimate test of a proposed change of control is whether or not it is in the public interest.

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CPUC steps in front of Comcast train, asserts authority over California broadband

15 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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Rejecting Comcast’s and Time-Warner’s claim that the California Public Utilities Commission can only consider a narrow set of largely technical questions regarding their proposed merger, a CPUC administrative law judge ruled yesterday that the commission can evaluate – and approve or disapprove – aspects of the merger on the basis of a wide range of public interest issues.

The ruling tracks closely with protests filed by advocacy groups and the commission’s office of ratepayer advocates.… More

CPUC considers making rural broadband experiments 10% sweeter

14 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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Proposals for FCC-funded rural broadband experiments in California will get an extra, and automatic, 10% subsidy, if the California Public Utilities Commission approves new draft rules released earlier this week.

As currently written, the resolution…

Pre-authorizes CASF monies for any California projects that the FCC selects and provides for such projects to be subject to the FCC Rural Broadband Experiments rules, not the CASF program rules. California applicants interested in participating in these Experiments must file with the FCC by October 13, 2014.

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Higher broadband construction costs means higher costs, California senate analysis admits

11 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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Not again.

It’s not exactly push back, but the first hint of clear headed thinking about more or less doubling broadband construction costs has emerged from the California legislature. Assembly bill 2272 would add broadband infrastructure subsidised by the California Advanced Services Fund to the list of construction projects that are subject to the state’s so-called prevailing wage law – in other words, be subject to union work rules and wages regardless of who is doing the work.… More

Broadband rocks the 80s in California public housing

10 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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There’s an odd debate going on over whether broadband service standards should be lower in public housing projects than in the rest of California, at least when the infrastructure is subsidised by the California Advanced Services Fund.

The California Public Utilities Commission is developing rules for spending $20 million on upgrading broadband facilities in public housing. The money comes from the same pot as the state’s primary broadband infrastructure subsidy program, which sets a minimum of 6 Mbps download and 1.5 Mbps upload speeds for systems it funds.… More

A highly concentrated Comcast would be nasty medicine for California

7 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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There’s a great analysis by William Conlow of the impact of the Comcast/Time-Warner merger on cable market concentration in Techdirt (h/t to Bud Colligan for the pointer). Using a standard measure of market concentration – the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) – the article shows that the result of the merger will be an increase in market concentration in the U.S. as a whole, to the level of a Moderately Concentrated Market. That’s the middle tier of the HHI scale, which is well-explained in the Techdirt piece and in a linked federal department of justice manual on anti-trust assessment.… More