fcc – Page 67 – Steve Blum's Blog

Cash offered to big incumbent ISPs to upgrade bandwidth

24 March 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, fcc, netneutrality, public policy

The fight over who pays for the Internet has moved deeper inside the network. Cogent and Level 3 are two companies that provide much of the backbone transport for major last mile Internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon. They’re accusing the big ISPs of, in effect, holding millions of consumers hostage in order to force others – backbone companies and content providers like Netflix, in particular – to pay the cost of upgrading their systems to support the continuing boom in Internet traffic.… More

Rural broadband appeals flood into the FCC

7 March 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, casf, fcc, public policy, regional consortia, rural broadband

Round up twice the usual number of suspects.

There’s no lack of interest in the FCC’s rural broadband experiment. By 5:00 p.m. California time, more than 500 expressions of interest had been filed electronically with the FCC and posted on its website (h/t to The Baller Herbst List for pointing me to the link). The total appeared to be climbing, and I’m guessing that the FCC will be accepting letters at least until midnight Midway Island time, if not well into the weekend.… More

FCC-funded rural broadband experiments have to walk the legacy telephone line

24 February 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, community networks, cpuc, fcc, public policy, rural broadband experiment

Eligible areas in the Golden State.

With the deadline for what the FCC is calling expressions of interest in its rural broadband experiments coming up fast – a week from Friday, on 7 March 2014 – the California Public Utilities Commission has put together some helpful tools for prospective applicants.

The list includes…

A summary of the FCC Internet protocol transition experiment program, including both the rural broadband and legacy voice service experiments.
A spreadsheet showing the eligible census tracts in California served by large telephone companies – AT&T, Verizon, Frontier and, it seems, SureWest.

… More

Federal judge accuses Silicon Valley of being common

22 February 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, fcc, netneutrality, public policy

One octopus looks pretty much like any other.

In trying to figure out what the next network neutral battle is going to look like, I read through the 81 page federal appeals court ruling that tossed out the Federal Communications Commission’s first stab at writing those rules. The majority decision reads like a prescription for what the FCC needs to do in order to impose net neutrality regulations, something chairman Tom Wheeler has taken to heart.… More

Google joins FCC chair in waving the muni broadband flag at incumbents

21 February 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, community networks, fcc, ftth, google, public policy

Call it motivation.

Google is stoking the fires of gigabit demand and keeping the heat on major cable and telephone companies with its announcement that it’s talking to 34 more cities about fiber-to-the-home projects. That’s completely consistent with a strategy of goading incumbents into upgrades that they’d prefer not to do. Whether it’s the also the first step in a national roll out remains to be seen.

There’s no actual promise to build, as Google makes very clear…

We hope to bring Google Fiber to every city on this list, but there are a few circumstances that might make it tough and even impossible to build our Fiber network in a city…If a city doesn’t want to proceed with us and chooses not to complete their checklist, we won’t be able to bring them Google Fiber.

… More

FCC chair's muni shout out is just a first step on a hard road

20 February 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, community networks, fcc, municipal broadband, public policy

Unmistakably, if not perfectly, clear.

FCC chairmanTom Wheeler stirred up a lot of excitement yesterday when he floated the idea of encouraging municipal broadband as a way of increasing telecommunications market competition…

The Commission will look for opportunities to enhance Internet access competition. One obvious candidate for close examination was raised…namely legal restrictions on the ability of cities and towns to offer broadband services to consumers in their communities.

He’s absolutely right that cities and other public agencies can create competition for incumbent telecommunications providers.… More

Cities, independent ISPs not welcome in FCC rural broadband experiment

19 February 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, community networks, cpuc, fcc, public policy, rural broadband experiment

FCC keeps friends close, and telephone companies closer.

Only traditional telephone companies, or companies and agencies that jump the same regulatory hurdles, can apply for grants to take part in the FCC’s upcoming rural broadband experiment program. That’s the word today from the California Public Utilities Commission.
Commissioner Catherine Sandoval led a workshop at the CPUC’s San Francisco headquarters this morning to look at how the FCC’s request for “expressions of interest” in its rural broadband program plays out in California.… More

FCC rural broadband experiment explained, for now

13 February 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, community networks, fcc, ftth, public policy, rural broadband experiment

Seeking logical expressions of interest.

The details of a federal initiative to fund high speed broadband trials in rural areas of the U.S. are becoming clearer. The chief of the FCC’s office of strategic planning and policy analysis, Jonathan Chambers, offered some insight about the initial phase of the program during a webinar this morning, organised by the National Rural Assembly.

“Can we do better for rural Americans than is currently being contemplated?” Chambers asked.… More

Bullies and nannies alike threaten Internet freedoms

2 February 2014 by Steve Blum
CES2019, fcc, itu, planet earth, public policy, robert mcdowell, tom wheeler

“Everything we’re talking about are threats to authoritarian regimes, and they have the votes”, said Robert McDowell, formerly an FCC commissioner and currently a thinker (or would that be a tanker?) at the Hudson Institute think tank. He was speaking at CES earlier in January. His concern is maintaining the vitality of an open Internet and everyone’s freedom to use it as they please. “A big threat to this is international regulation and governance”, he said, renewing his warning that some governments – via international organisations as well as their own efforts – want to bring online activists and entrepreneurs to heel.… More

Court rules FCC out of bounds on network neutrality

14 January 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, fcc, netneutrality, public policy

Leaving the neutral zone.

The FCC can’t tell Internet service providers how to manage their traffic and pricing schemes. That was the ruling this morning from a federal appeals court that said the commission can’t prevent service providers from blocking subscribers from a particular website or type of service – video streaming, for example – or charging more to access it.

In doing so, the court agreed with the two republican-appointed commissioners, Ajit Pai and Michael Rielly, who said last week that the FCC’s network neutrality rules went beyond what congress had allowed.… More