cpuc

CPUC not bugged by incumbent advantages, approve new broadband subsidy rules

26 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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Whether you like the rules or not – and for what it’s worth I don’t – it’s game on for the next round of broadband infrastructure construction subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund. In a unanimous vote this morning, the California Public Utilities Commission approved new rules and a timeline for applying for CASF grants and loans.

Existing Internet service providers that offer substandard service (6 Mbps down/1.5 Mbps up, per the CPUC) are first in line: they can block potential competitors from getting CASF funding in their service areas.… More

Californian broadband subsidy rules go from bad to worse

25 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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A revised set of proposed new rules for getting broadband construction subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund has been posted. It’s great news for incumbent telephone and cable companies, but it makes it harder – maybe impossible – for independent competitors to get in the game.

The first draft was floated last month, and generated a firestorm of comments, followed by counter-arguments, from incumbent service providers, regional broadband consortia and others. The result is a second draft that gives incumbents pretty much everything they wanted…

  • Existing service providers would have until 1 November 2014 (instead of 26 September) to make a “commitment” to upgrade substandard service in a given area.
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Don't expect a chance to challenge California-wide cable franchise renewals

24 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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Stifle yourself.

The first statewide cable franchises issued by the California Public Utilities Commission will start expiring in the next three or four years. Those franchises superseded local video service franchises issued individually by cities and counties and run for ten years. To get ready for that, the commission is scheduled to vote on new renewal rules at its meeting on Thursday, 26 June 2014.

The proposal on the table now says, in essence, the same rules apply to renewals as to the original applications, with one exception: companies that are “in violation of any final nonappealable court order issued pursuant to California video franchise law” will lose their franchises.… More

ViaSat doesn't want you to know its customers still choke on FCC broadband tests

22 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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ViaSat convinced the FCC to suppress this data in its latest report. Click for bigger version.

ViaSat showed the best speed and consistency in the FCC’s latest round of national broadband testing, but those same measurements also show that its subscribers don’t get anywhere near as much data as landline customers. Similar to last year’s poor report card, the FCC results show that about a third of ViaSat’s customers get less than 2 gigabytes a month and only one of those tested hit over 10 GB.… More

California broadband construction cost leap clears key hurdle

18 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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Work undone.

A couple of tweaks were made, but the substance of assembly bill 2272 remains the same following discussion and approval by the California senate energy, utilities and communications committee yesterday. AB 2272 would impose union pay and work rules requirements on all broadband infrastructure projects funded by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), nearly doubling the cost for both taxpayers and ISPs.

The committee rejected a proposal to limit the new rules to future projects, opting instead to make the requirement retroactive.… More

Point and counterpoint for new broadband subsidy rules in California

17 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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Eight rebuttals were filed yesterday, in response to the 14 opening comments on a draft of new rules for infrastructure construction subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).

Three sets of reply comments came from service providers, or those who represent them. Frontier, a coalition of small rural telephone companies and the lobbying front for the California cable industry – CCTA – followed up their original comments by largely agreeing with each other, and objecting to any notion that greater accountability should be expected of them.… More

California senate committee better prepped to consider bill raising broadband construction costs

16 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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A new barrier to better broadband in California?

There’s finally some push back to the idea that the cost of building ratepayer-subsidised broadband infrastructure should nearly double in California. An analysis prepared for the state senate’s energy, communications and utilities committee lists two industry lobbying groups – CalTel and CalCom – and one company – Consolidated Communications, formerly SureWest – as opposing assembly bill 2272, which would bring all projects funded by the California Advanced Services Fund under what is euphemistically called the state’s prevailing wage law.… More

California wake up call is Verizon's headache

15 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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Verizon’s objections to proposed changes for broadband infrastructure subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) would be forgivable coming from an east coast venture capitalist who woke up on Redondo Beach with a raging hangover and a contract stapled to his naked chest awarding him ownership of the local telephone system. But not from an incumbent telco that claims to be perpetually upgrading its network in California.

In a ranting letter, submitted as comments on a draft of new CASF rules last week, a Verizon staff lobbyist wrote…

The draft would require existing providers to submit a letter by September 26, 2014 that declares its intent to upgrade any area in all of California that is not served.

… More

Constructive ideas (mostly) offered for Californian broadband subsidy plan

14 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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Except for a couple of not so veiled threats of legal action, the comments submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission regarding a new plan to re-start the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) program were generally positive, with few specific recommendations for changes. The nastiness came from the cable industry’s lobbyists in Sacramento – the California Cable and Telecommunications Association – and Verizon (more on that tomorrow).

Comments from other incumbent telephone companies – with the glaring exception of AT&T, which didn’t submit any – were more nuanced.… More

CPUC tells regional consortia to build broadband infrastructure

13 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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A foot of fiber is worth a mile of talk.

The California Public Utilities Commission has, again, made it clear that the top spending priority of the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) is better broadband infrastructure. In a unanimous decision yesterday, the CPUC blessed two new CASF-funded regional broadband consortia, in the process reaffirming that the program is about construction, not talk.

One, the North Bay North Coast Broadband Consortium (NBNCBC) will get a total of $250,000, split over 2 years, to work toward improving broadband infrastructure in Sonoma, Mendocino, Marin and Napa Counties.… More