monopoly

Broadband speeds are the first casualty of truth

6 October 2018 by Steve Blum
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Internet service offerings slow down when service providers are forced to advertise accurate speed levels. In particular, the speed of teaser packages, designed to lure in price conscious subscribers, fall by 41%. That’s the conclusion of a British consumer group, following a study of how ISP advertising practices changed in the wake of a new U.K. regulation that forces them to make accurate service claims.

The Consumers’ Association says the down shift was sudden, coming soon after the new rules took effect…

The majority of broadband providers have been forced to cut the headline speeds they advertise when selling deals, following recent changes to advertising rules, according to new [Consumers’ Association] research.

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California’s regulatory review of T-Mobile-Sprint deal has light years left to run

29 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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The proposed purchase of Sprint by T-Mobile will get a thorough workover by the California Public Utilities Commission, and a final decision on whether or not to allow it won’t come until next summer. The commissioner running the review, Clifford Rechtschaffen, laid out the issues that he’ll investigate in a ruling on Friday.

Rechtschaffen had to decide how wide ranging his inquiry will be. Sprint and T-Mobile wanted it to be very narrow, and focus on two particular issues: could a relatively small Sprint subsidiary that does some wireline business in California be sold to T-Mobile, and could T-Mobile take over Sprint’s California mobile carrier registration.… More

AT&T and Comcast know Internet content censorship is real and it works

20 September 2018 by Steve Blum
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I’ve seen what a world without network neutrality looks like, and it isn’t pretty. I spent a couple of weeks in China this summer with a Linux laptop and an Android phone. There was 4G mobile broadband available everywhere I went, and WiFi availability is common. But that only gets you so far.

My gmail account was blocked, along with all the other Google services I use. To get around that, I set up an Office 365 account with an alternate domain name.… More

Charter, Comcast tell FTC to kill California broadband laws

28 August 2018 by Steve Blum
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Comcast and Charter Communications want the Federal Trade Commission to preempt California’s data privacy law, and any other state laws regarding broadband service. In comments filed last week, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), which serves as a Washington, D.C. lobbying front for Comcast, Charter and other cable companies, ask the FTC to tell state lawmakers and officials that they can’t enforce broadband service rules beyond what federal regulators think is appropriate (h/t to Jon Brodkin at Ars Technica for the pointer)…

The FTC should ensure that the Internet is subject to uniform, consistent federal regulations, including by issuing guidance explicitly setting forth that inconsistent state and local requirements are preempted…

California’s recently enacted California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 imposes numerous requirements that differ from, and even conflict with, federal law.174 Moreover, a patchwork of state-level rules applying only to BIAS providers would undercut existing federal policy basing enforcement on what information is collected and how it is used, rather than on who is collecting the information.

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T-Mobile’s takeover of Sprint challenged in California

20 August 2018 by Steve Blum
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T-Mobile’s plan to buy its smaller competitor, Sprint, faces formal opposition in California. The California Public Utilities Commission’s office of ratepayer advocates and a pair of consumer advocacy groups filed formal protests to the merger, claiming, among other things, that it runs afoul of anti-trust principles and would result in a significantly less competitive mobile telecoms market.

The deal has to be approved by the CPUC, but the scope of that review is limited. So far.… More

PG&E cancels competitive dark fiber business plan

10 August 2018 by Steve Blum
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That didn’t take long.

Four days after informing the California Public Utilities Commission that it couldn’t reach agreement with a grab bag of protesting organisations, Pacific Gas and Electric threw in the towel. It’s ending its plan to become a competitive telecommunications company. It won’t put its extensive inventory of surplus dark fiber, and potentially other services, on the open market.

In its request to withdraw its application for certification as a competitive telecoms company, PG&E said the world has changed since it began the process more than a year ago…

Given PG&E’s present circumstances, it is in the public interest that PG&E make current informed decisions in light of the new environment before investing significant resources in launching the new [competitive telecoms] business.

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As TV subs cancel, monopoly control of broadband pipes is Comcast’s best hope to grow business

1 August 2018 by Steve Blum
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As TV subs cancel, monopoly control of broadband pipes is Comcast's best hope to grow business

Comcast offered the perfect example last week of why big, monopoly broadband companies hate the idea of network neutrality, and are stuffing politician's pockets with cash arguing so eloquently against it.

Comcast's traditional cable television business is bleeding subscribers and revenue at an increasing pace, but its broadband business is booming. The company reported its second quarter 2018 financial results last week.… More

T-Mobile’s purchase of Sprint has to clear a Californian hurdle

27 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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T-Mobile, the third largest U.S. mobile carrier, needs the California Public Utilities Commission’s blessing to buy Sprint, the fourth largest. Sorta.

The Federal Communications Commission has jurisdiction over mobile carriers and is doing the heavy lifting in the regulatory review of the transaction. But Sprint has a subsidiary – Sprint Communications Company, or “Sprint Wireline” as it’s referred to – that sells services to business customers in California. As a result, the company has a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) granted by the CPUC, and needs its approval to transfer ownership to T-Mobile.… More

Judge ignored fundamental economics in approving AT&T, Time Warner deal, justice department says

22 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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The judge who unconditionally blessed AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner’s content companies “rejected fundamental principles of economics”, according to a motion filed by the federal justice department as it launched its appeal of that decision…

The “assumption” the court criticized was the fundamental economic principle, recognized in case law, that the merged firm would maximize its corporate-wide profits (rather than instruct Turner and DirecTV to operate independently at the expense of overall profits to the parent corporation).

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Google’s Android bundling strategy whacked by EU

19 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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Google set two records yesterday: it was hit with the largest fine ever assessed by European Union anti-trust enforcers, which didn’t scare Wall Street because its stock price – actually, its nominal parent company Alphabet’s share price – hit the highest level ever.

The $5 billion fine was accompanied by an order for Google to radically change the way it markets the Android mobile phone operating system, according to a tweet by Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commission and a former member of the Danish parliament…

Fine of €4,34 bn to @Google for 3 types of illegal restrictions on the use of Android.

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