fcc

FCC didn’t succeed in blocking San Francisco’s open access broadband law

27 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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San francisco skyline 625

San Francisco’s open access rules for broadband in multi-tenant buildings is alive and well, according to a local independent Internet service provider. That’s despite the Federal Communications Commission’s determination to preempt the ordinance passed by San Francisco supervisors in 2016. It requires landlords to allow any ISP access to buildings, regardless of whether or not an exclusivity contract is in place.

In an opinion piece published in the San Francisco Examiner, Preston Rhea, the director of engineering for the policy program at broadband provider Monkeybrains, says that tenants and ISPs are still using the ordinance as leverage to pry open building doors…

Monkeybrains’ experience in the months since the FCC’s rulemaking indicates that [the San Francisco broadband access ordinance] is intact and operating as intended.

… More

FCC asks for limited net neutrality comments, but Rosenworcel says “make noise”

21 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission will tweak its network neutrality rules, such as they are, to answer objections made by the federal appeals court based in Washington, D.C. last year. That court – aka the D.C. circuit – largely upheld the FCC’s 2017 repeal of network neutrality rules, but sent a few bits back to the agency for more work and threw out a blanket preemption of state and local regulations.

In a notice issued earlier this week, the FCC asked for comments on the public safety, lifeline and pole attachment issues flagged by the D.C.… More

FCC revises subsidy rules, won’t zonk California because of our low broadband standards

19 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Monty hall

The Federal Communications Commission approved a small do-over to the rules for its new broadband subsidy program, the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). Instead of blocking subsidies to any area where state broadband dollars are being spent, it will only do so where the money is paying for service at a minimum of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds.

That’s good new for California. Our primary broadband subsidy program – the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) – deems communities with broadband at the achingly slow rate of 6 Mbps down/1 Mbps up as adequately served, and only requires grant recipients who build infrastructure with state money to hit the barely better speed of 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up.… More

FCC’s $270 pole rental limit for wireless attachments might be “arbitrary and capricious”, appellate judge says

18 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Los angeles streetlight cell 1 23oct2019

Federal appeals court judges hearing the challenge brought by local governments to the Federal Communications Commission’s 2018 preemption of ownership and control of street lights tried to get an FCC lawyer to explain how the commission settled on $270 as the allowable annual pole rental limit. The attorney, Scott Noveck, couldn’t oblige judges Jay Bybee and Mary Schroeder…

Bybee: I’d still like you to get to how you get to the $270.

Novek: So your honor, what I believe happened is that the commission took a look at various state small cell bills…

Bybee: It’s interesting, counsel, that you just characterised it as ‘you believe’.

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FCC’s rural 5G justification for urban wireless preemption is comfort to AT&T but not to Fresno, appeals court told

14 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Ninth circuit oral argument pole preemption 10feb2020

Federal appellate judges drilled down into arguments made by local governments and the Federal Communications Commission on Monday, as they considered a challenge to the FCC’s 2018 decision to cap rental rates for locally owned street light poles and other assets in the public right of way, and effectively give mobile carriers unfettered use of public property.

One justification for this preemption of local property ownership was that if big cities with big potential for subscriber revenue charge high fees, then carriers like AT&T and Verizon won’t have money left over to spend in less profitable small cities and rural communities.… More

FCC tells appeals court if electric or cable companies can install “larger, uglier, blighted” equipment on poles, then wireless carriers can too

11 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Small cell olympic blvd 22oct2019

The Federal Communications Commission defended its 2018 preemption of local property ownership and permitting authority in front of a panel of three federal appeals court judges in Pasadena yesterday. Its lawyers faced some pointed questions from the judges.

FCC attorney Scott Noveck tried to dance around the reality of the FCC’s preemption order and claim that it really wasn’t doing much at all, particularly in regards to limits on the aesthetic requirements that cities can impose on wireless facilities.… More

Game on today, as cities take on FCC in court over pole ownership preemption

10 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Downtown salinas

Local ownership of street light poles and other facilities planted in the public right of way is at stake, as lawyers for dozens of cities and counties and the Federal Communications Commission square off in a Pasadena court room later this morning.

A panel of three federal appellate court judges will hear arguments about why, or why not, the FCC has the authority to tell local agencies how much they can charge mobile carriers to attach equipment to their poles, and to largely replace negotiated rental contracts with simple, non-discretionary permits.… More

California gets a zonk from the FCC’s new broadband subsidy program

4 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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Zonk

The final language of the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to launch a new broadband subsidy program could cause headaches in California. The FCC approved the new $20 billion Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program last week, apparently with eligibility rule changes to the draft version published earlier in January.

In remarks prepared for the meeting, commission Geoffrey Starks flagged new language that would exclude places that are getting broadband subsidies from other sources…

I cannot support provisions of the Order that penalize the many states that have made their own investments in rural broadband deployment.

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$16 billion in broadband subsidies up for auction in November

31 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission will begin the process of handing out $16 billion in broadband service subsidies in November, with another $4.4 billion coming sometime later. Commissioners approved the new Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) program at their meeting in Washington, D.C. yesterday. They set the minimum standard for acceptable broadband service at 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds: any census block that completely lacks access to service at that speed level will eligible for subsidies in November.… More

Investment analysts say AT&T, Frontier, others padded bottom line with FCC broadband subsidies

30 January 2020 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote today on a new ten year, $20 billion broadband subsidy program called the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) that will mostly benefit rural communities. The proposal on the table would set the U.S. minimum broadband standard at 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds. That’s a lot better than California’s pathetic standard of 6 Mbps down/1 Mbps up, and a significant improvement over the 10 Mbps down/1 Mbps up minimum that the FCC established for the Connect America Fund II program (CAF II), which RDOF will replace.… More