fcc – Page 14 – Steve Blum's Blog

New congress, old issues return to Washington, D.C. in 2019

30 December 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, fcc, netneutrality, public policy, rural broadband

There were two wins for broadband development policy in Washington D.C. this year, and both were backed by agriculture interests. In March, a big federal spending bill passed, with $600 million going to the new ReConnect broadband infrastructure grant and loan program, and the once-every-five-years farm bill was approved earlier this month, with at least $1.7 billion more for similar purposes.

Congress didn’t do much else, though.

Unless there’s a surprise on Monday, the year will end with one empty seat on the Federal Communications Commission.… More

FCC’s economic illiteracy on display in muni property preemption fight

29 December 2018 by Steve Blum
fcc, monopoly, pole attachment, public policy, small cells

Sometimes the real story is in the footnotes. That’s the case with a Federal Communications Commission denial of a request to delay enforcement of its September order that would, if upheld by federal courts, take away property rights from local governments. In the denial, the FCC tries to make its case with economic nonsense: that the market value of an asset is only determined only by its “actual and direct costs”.

The market value of anything is determined by the balance between its perceived worth to the buyer and the seller.… More

Overturning FCC local pole ownership preemption seems easier in San Francisco

27 December 2018 by Steve Blum
ab57, fcc, pole attachment, public policy, small cells

The Federal Communications Commission “seeks to redefine the relationship between state and local governments and telecommunications providers” with a new and expansive interpretation of federal law, according to a group of local agencies challenging an order that preempts local ownership of light poles and other municipal property located in the public right of way. The group, led by the City of San Jose, wants the case moved from the federal appeals court in Denver, to the ninth circuit appeals court in San Francisco.… More

Muni property rights are written into federal law and FCC decisions, North Little Rock tells appeals court

20 December 2018 by Steve Blum
ab57, fcc, pole attachment, public policy, small cells

The case against the FCC’s preemption of local property ownership is taking shape. The first city to ask federal appellate court judges to put the FCC’s September wireless order on hold while legal wheels grind is North Little Rock, Arkansas, in partnership with a Missouri muni utility association.

Most of North Little Rock’s arguments are specific to municipal electric utilities. Federal law exempts municipal utilities from FCC pole attachment oversight. Muni electric utilities also have to follow more rigid safety requirements – working on high voltage lines is a dangerous job – and they have long-established procedures for working with telecommunications companies, wired and wireless alike.… More

FCC and friends want to keep muni pole ownership preemption challenges in Denver

19 December 2018 by Steve Blum
ab57, fcc, pole attachment, public policy, small cells

Neither the Federal Communications Commission or mobile telecoms companies want to go to San Francisco to defend the agency’s preemption of local ownership of municipal property in the public right of way. They want to keep the growing list of appeals court challenges to the FCC’s September wireless deployment order in Denver.

In separate, but very similar, rebuttals the FCC and the beneficiaries of its generosity argued that the cases shouldn’t be transferred to the ninth circuit federal appeals court in San Francisco, as requested by the City of San Jose and its partners.… More

The rent in our contract is more than the FCC likes, so rip it up, Verizon tells city

18 December 2018 by Steve Blum
fcc, pole attachment, public policy, small cells, verizon

Verizon is waving the Federal Communications Commission’s pole ownership preemption order like a chainsaw as it tries to shred existing lease contracts it signed, but doesn’t like. In a request to put that order on hold, the City of North Little Rock included a copy of a letter it received from Verizon, in response to a wireless ordinance it adopted in July.

In it, Verizon told the city…

We’ve also compared our existing Master Lease Agreement (“MLA”) with the City to the FCC Order.

… More

Lobbyists ask FCC to hit cities with another taxpayer funded broadband mugging

16 December 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, fcc, muni broadband, public policy

The ravaging horde of (largely) telco and cable lobbyists known as the Federal Communications Commission’s broadband deployment advisory committee (BDAC) has drafted its latest ~~letter to Santa~~ advice to FCC chair Ajit Pai.

Not surprisingly, it thinks that Charter Communications, Comcast, AT&T and other monopoly model broadband service providers aren’t getting enough love from local governments. Love, in this case, meaning give us everything you have, then go out and get us more.

If a city owns dark fiber, then it should be required to hand it over to “any private sector communications provider” on demand, and only be allowed to keep enough for its “reasonably anticipated 50-year fiber needs”.… More

More cities join the court battle against FCC muni property preemption ruling

15 December 2018 by Steve Blum
ab57, fcc, pole attachment, public policy, small cells

More than two dozen eastern, midwestern and Texan cities jumped into the court fight against the Federal Communications Commission’s preemption of local ownership of street light and other municipal property planted in the public right of way. The group, led by the City of Austin, filed its paperwork in the federal appeals court headquartered in the District of Columbia.

If I’m counting right, the deadline has now passed for any additional appeals, but there’s always the opportunity to join the fun as an intervenor, as the City of New York did.… More

FCC says it’s legal to give muni property to mobile companies because it’s illegal for cities to say no

12 December 2018 by Steve Blum
ab57, fcc, pole attachment, public policy, small cells

The Federal Communications Commission says it has the authority to tell cities and counties what they can do with property they own, because otherwise they would be breaking the law. In a decision that should have surprised no one, the FCC refused to put its September wireless preemption ruling on hold.

Instead, in an odd bit of contradictory reasoning, the FCC’s latest order says it’s not taking away cities’ rights to property they own that’s located within the public right of way (ROW), such as street light poles and traffic signals.… More

Cable, fiber systems deliver broadband service at or near advertised speeds, DSL generally doesn’t, FCC report says

10 December 2018 by Steve Blum
att, broadband, fcc, frontiercommunications, speed test

The FCC’s primary broadband metric is now the 80/80 benchmark: the minimum speed that 80% of users experience, 80% of the time during primetime viewing hours. When evaluated against that benchmark, cable modem and fiber-to-the-home systems do a reasonably good job of delivering service at advertised speeds. Among Californian providers, only Comcast fell noticeably short, with actual download speeds hitting around 90% of what they promise.

Telco DSL-based service doesn’t do so well. According to the FCC’s latest field tests, AT&T’s and Frontier Communications’ legacy DSL services – the kind you often find in rural California – deliver speeds that are about 60% of what they promise.… More