cpuc – Page 9 – Steve Blum's Blog

CPUC asks ISPs to give Californians a break, but all it can do is ask

27 April 2020 by Steve Blum
att, charter, comcast, covid19, cpuc

Broadband service is too expensive for many families, but it’s a necessity nonetheless, according to a letter sent on Friday to Californian Internet service providers by California Public Utilities Commission president Marybel Batjer. Saying “not every household could or can continue to afford $50 a month for a quality, high-speed Internet connection”, Batjer asked ISPs to…

Provide service sufficient for all family members to work and learn from home: Subscription in the range of $0–15 a month, offering a minimum of 25 Mbps, and eliminate or waive data caps and overage charges.

… More

Two-thirds of California families say they need help getting their kids online

21 April 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband adoption, casf, covid19, cpuc, mobile broadband

Some California students have access to the tools they need to keep up with lessons while locked down at home, but many, particularly those in low income households, don’t. That’s the finding of a survey of California parents conducted by the Education Trust West (h/t to Scott Lay at Around the Capitol for the pointer).

Kids don’t have the computers or tablets to do the word, and those who do can’t connect. Respondents said there are too few devices available in the home, only about third said that schools are providing take-home equipment to their kids.… More

CPUC antes up $5 million for student hotspots and laptops, but the pot’s not right yet

20 April 2020 by Steve Blum
broadband adoption, casf, covid19, cpuc, mobile broadband

A plan to spend $5 million on mobile hotspots and inexpensive Chromebook-class laptops, for students to use at home while schools are shut down during the covid–19 emergency, is set for a 7 May 2020 vote by the California Public Utilities Commission. Comments on the draft resolution are due 27 April 2020.

The California Department of Education (CDE) would manage the money and target schools that have the greatest need.

The draft resolution and the original request from CDE are a bit vague on the definition of a hotspot.… More

CPUC tries to correct past merger mistakes as it approves T-Mobile/Sprint deal

17 April 2020 by Steve Blum
cpuc, mobile broadband, monopoly, sprint, t-mobile

Two weeks after the fact, T-Mobile gained California’s blessing to take over Sprint yesterday, as the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved a decision that imposes a long list of requirements that the newly combined company is expected to meet in California.

Expected, but not guaranteed.

As he presented the decision, Clifford Rechtschaffen, the commissioner in charge of the CPUC’s review, said that “the applicants continue to dispute our jurisdiction to review wireless mergers. We very fundamentally disagree on this point and the decision rejects their challenge to our jurisdiction”.… More

Belated approval of T-Mobile/Sprint deal, with a long and contested list of conditions, set for CPUC vote today

16 April 2020 by Steve Blum
cpuc, mobile broadband, monopoly, sprint, t-mobile

T-Mobile and Sprint will finally get permission to merge from the California Public Utilities Commission later today, assuming commissioners approve a revised draft decision that was posted yesterday. Nothing is guaranteed – the vote could be delayed, for example – but given that commissioners met in closed session to discuss it on Monday and yesterday’s revision is more of a refinement than a major change to the original draft, approval looks like a good bet.… More

California must take Frontier’s bankruptcy as seriously as PG&E’s

15 April 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, frontiercommunications, public policy, rural broadband

Frontier Communications filed for bankruptcy protection last night. In a statement posted on its website, the company said it was washing away $11 billion in debt, out of a total of $22 billion owed to creditors, much of it the result of its purchase of Verizon’s legacy wireline telephone systems in California. The statement has the usual blah-blah-blah about its hope to “continue providing quality service”, but according to a story on Bloomberg by Allison McNeely, Frontier will “hand control to its unsecured creditors, according to people with knowledge of the matter”.… More

Quick changes coming for California broadband subsidy fund to plug covid-19 gaps

14 April 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, ccbc, covid19, cpuc, rural broadband

More money might soon be flowing from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to meet critical broadband service needs that have been given renewed attention because of the covid–19 emergency and the need for everyone to conduct business and educate kids, along with everything else that’s moved online. A request for ideas on how to make faster and better use of CASF in response to the emergency was sent out by the California Public Utilities Commission last month.… More

CPUC takes up T-Mobile/Sprint merger behind closed doors as Thursday’s scheduled vote nears

13 April 2020 by Steve Blum
cpuc, mobile broadband, monopoly, sprint, t-mobile

The California Public Utilities Commission will hold a rare closed door meeting later this morning to discuss the T-Mobile/Sprint merger. The announcement was made on Friday morning, following the Thursday afternoon flurry of filings and weeks of lobbying by supporters and opponents of the deal.

Although the commission is careful to provide proper notice that a closed door “ratesetting deliberative meeting” might be held in this sort of case, it’s unusual. I don’t follow all the action everyday at the commission, so I won’t hazard a guess as to how often they do this, but I can’t recall it ever happening in a proceeding that I’ve been following.… More

T-Mobile’s actions mean its California obligations “will be taken lightly” or “totally ignored”, CPUC told

10 April 2020 by Steve Blum
cpuc, mobile broadband, monopoly, sprint, t-mobile

A final flurry of rebuttals defending and attacking T-Mobile’s de facto takeover of Sprint landed at the California Public Utilities Commission yesterday. The bulk of the comments amount to what I said before. But there are some interesting bits amongst all that.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) – the primary telecoms union in California – unearthed a U.S. congressional report from 1993, when the lines were drawn between state and federal jurisdiction over mobile carriers.… More

T-Mobile pauses merger of Sprint operations in California, but only until next week

9 April 2020 by Steve Blum
cpuc, mobile broadband, monopoly, sprint, t-mobile

In a whirlwind of conference calls with California Public Utilities Commission staff and one key commissioner, T-Mobile said it would abide by an order that stopped its merger with Sprint on an operational level in California, at least until next week’s CPUC meeting. When the two companies closed their deal last week without permission from the CPUC staff, commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen, who is in charge of the regulatory review, quickly directed them to “not begin merger of their California operations until after the CPUC issues a final decision”.… More