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It’s small ball, but at least U.S. congress is playing the broadband game

30 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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Two broadband-related bills were passed by the U.S. house of representatives last week. Both focus on the federal broadband bureaucracy rather than infrastructure deployment or service upgrades, but at least there’s the hope that something will come of it.

House resolution 4881 was carried by representative Bob Latta (R – Ohio). It aims to promote “precision agriculture”, which seems to be just another way of saying “ag tech”. But it’s really about bringing modern broadband service to unserved rural areas.… More

Just one touch is all it takes, FCC tells telephone, cable companies

29 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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One of the useful things that’s come out of the Federal Communications Commission’s industry-dominated Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee (BDAC) is a draft rule that would establish a “one touch make ready” (OTMR) process for attaching new cables to utility poles. Assuming the FCC adopts it – pretty much a foregone conclusion – a new wireline competitor that wants to enter a market won’t have to wait around for incumbents to clean up their attachments before adding its own cable.… More

A Washington, DC republican gets net neutrality religion

18 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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Another network neutrality bill landed in Washington, D.C. on Monday. What’s interesting about this one is that its author is a republican and it would reinstate the core rules established by the Obama administration’s Federal Communications Commission in 2015, but overturned by the Trump administration’s team late last year. At the time, representative Mike Coffman (R – Colorado) urged the FCC to delay repealing net neutrality so federal lawmakers could make the decision instead. The FCC went ahead anyway, so Coffman finally offered his bill in reply.… More

Dig once is OK, dig never is not, FCC says

17 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission fired a shot across the bow of local governments last week, when it published a draft version of a “declaratory ruling” that, as the name implies, declares that moratoria that block broadband deployment violate federal law.

The ruling is primarily concerned with permits to build wireless facilities – cell sites, for the most part – and to install broadband infrastructure, such as conduit, in the public right of way. Some cities refuse to process permit applications for particular, broadband-related projects, the FCC draft says, either because they have formally decided not to – imposed a moratorium, in other words – or because they just sit on applications they don’t like and, in effect, create a de facto moratorium.… More

FCC lowers rural speed standard to 8 Mbps down, 800 Kbps up

10 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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Internet service providers who get Connect America Fund subsidies from the Federal Communications Commission have to use the money to deliver service at a minimum of 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps up load speeds, in most cases – effectively all cases in California so far. Last week, the FCC defined what that standard really means: subsidised carriers have to run quarterly speed tests that show they’re hitting 80% of the required speed, 80% of the time.… More

FCC looks at shifting satellite spectrum to wireless broadband

4 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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C-band satellite frequencies will be rolled up over time, and turned over to ground-based wireless broadband operators, if the Federal Communications Commission moves ahead with a plan it will consider at its July 2018 meeting.

The satellite industry got it start with C-band back in the 1970s. Those birds sparked a revolution in the television business, allowing the development of cable networks, like HBO and CNN. They also enabled a new wave of satellite TV entrepreneurs, who sold big, back yard dishes to people who lived outside the bounds of cable systems.… More

U.S. senators want cities to act fast on small cell permit applications

3 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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There’s bad news and maybe a little good news for cities in a draft U.S. senate bill that aims to speed up wireless broadband deployments. Senate bill 3157 was introduced last week by senators John Thune (R – South Dakota) and Brian Schatz (D – Hawaii). It’s a bipartisan and significant pairing – Thune chairs the senate’s commerce committee and Schatz is the ranking democrat on its communications subcommittee.

The bad news is that the bill would reduce the amount of time local governments have to process permit applications for wireless facilities.… More

Few Californian ISPs make the cut for FCC rural broadband subsidy auction

26 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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At least 13 Internet service providers with some kind of presence in California qualified for the upcoming federal rural broadband subsidy auction that’s scheduled for next month. The Federal Communications Commission released the final list of qualified bidders in the Connect America Fund auction round yesterday. Nationwide, a total of 220 companies qualified, and 57 were axed.

None of the ISPs on the list are obligated to bid for rural territory in California.… More

Net neutrality bill thottled by AT&T’s friends in the California legislature

21 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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In an ugly display of legislative muscle yesterday, assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D – Los Angeles), the chair of the California assembly’s communications and conveyances committee, gutted senate bill 822, the lead network neutrality bill in the California legislature.

The other net neutrality bill, SB 460, was withdrawn by its author, senator Kevin de Leon (D – Los Angeles). Although it’s technically still alive, SB 460 is dead as a practical matter (although resurrection is always a possibility at the California capitol).… More

California assembly committee guts and kills net neutrality bills

20 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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One net neutrality bill is dead and another is critically wounded after a hearing this morning in the California legislature. The industry-friendly communications and conveyances committee adopted a long list of amendments to senate bill 822 that “eviscerate” it, as its author, senator Scott Wiener (D – San Francisco) put it. The committee’s chair, assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D – Los Angeles), who has cashed tens of thousands of dollars worth of checks from telephone and cable companies, rammed the changes through over Wiener’s objections.… More