public policy

California cable lobby pushes "the bounds of acceptable behavior"

10 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Not the way it’s done.

A last minute, behind-the-scenes attempt by the California Cable and Telecommunications Association (CCTA) – the lobbying front for the cable industry in Sacramento – to derail affordable broadband service in public housing failed yesterday. The California Public Utilities Commission voted 4 to 1 to approve grants for low cost or free broadband facilities in a dozen public housing communities where cable companies offer far more expensive service. Comcast and Charter Communications had earlier protested the grant applications.… More

Six Californias initiative makes a roaring comeback

8 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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We’re giving the Six Californias initiative a boost. Kicking it in the pants and getting it moving again. Tim Draper’s original plan to break up California had one fatal flaw: stupid names for the new states. I’ve fixed that…

Jefferson – the one name of the original six that made any sense. It channels the head rush of the budding secession movement in the north, respects the fragrant history from which it stems and seeds the hopes of a mellower mañana.… More

New federal broadband subsidies will favor states spurned by incumbents

7 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Nevada gets a second chance.

Californian communities are not likely to figure prominently in the Federal Communication Commission’s list of areas that’ll be eligible for its next round of Connect America Fund 2 broadband subsidies. That’s because the big incumbent carriers – AT&T and Frontier – exercised their right of first refusal in the last round and picked up a total of $590 million over six years in exchange for promising to upgrade most of their substandard California service territories to 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds.… More

U.S. lawmakers want to trim FCC's broadband oversight role

6 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Two versions of a ban on rate regulation for broadband service are moving through the U.S. congress, but there’s more to it than preventing the Federal Communications Commission from overseeing monthly subscription prices.

House resolution 2666 was passed by the house of representatives and is now awaiting action by the U.S. senate. As currently written, it says the FCC “may not regulate the rates charged for broadband Internet access service”. That simple and very broad statement covers more than just monthly fees.… More

Sierra fixed wireless project in line for California broadband subsidy

5 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Click for more maps.

El Dorado County is in line for another wireless broadband project, largely paid for by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). Last year Cal.net, a wireless Internet service provider in the Sierra Nevada, submitted four proposed projects to the California Public Utilities Commission, asking for a total of $8.1 million in CASF grants to pay for 60% of construction costs. Two of the projects were in El Dorado County. The first, which covers underserved areas to the north of U.S.… More

Assembly votes to write the CPUC out of the California constitution

4 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Disestablished?

It’ll be up to the California senate to decide whether or not to put the future of the California Public Utilities Commission on the November general election ballot. The assembly approved assembly constitutional amendment 11 on Thursday. If it gets on the ballot and voters approve it, the CPUC would lose its special constitutional status as an independent agency.

The state legislature would then have to decide how utilities – energy, telecoms, water and transportation – will be regulated in California.… More

Four good reasons to favor FTTH over wireless broadband, CPUC says

2 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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No less deserving.

When it approved a $16 million grant for the Bright Fiber fiber-to-the-home project in Nevada County last year, the California Public Utilities Commission said that expensive and patchy wireless Internet service is not sufficient to block broadband infrastructure construction subsidies in underserved areas. Last week, the CPUC reaffirmed that decision, unanimously rejecting requests for a rehearing from two fixed wireless Internet service operators.

In doing so, the commission said that there are clear differences between wireless and wireline broadband service…

  • First, the fiber-to-the-premises network proposed by Bright Fiber is not subject to terrain variability, and Bright Fiber has committed to serve every household in the project area…
  • Second, fiber-to-the-premise systems have significant speed advantages over fixed wireless systems…
  • Third, a fiber network has a significant advantage in terms of capacity over fixed wireless in any given area.
… More

Faster speeds can offset higher costs in FCC broadband subsidy auction

1 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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What do I hear bid?

The Federal Communications Commission is defining 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds as “baseline performance” for the next round of Connect America Fund 2 (CAF-2) broadband subsidies. It’s not a hard requirement, but speeds at or above that level will give applicants extra credit when the FCC runs a reverse auction – probably later this year – to award $215 million in annual subsidies for ten years in eligible areas that weren’t included in the last round of CAF-2 awards.… More

Unanimous vote to bring California utility regulation back to Sacramento

31 May 2016 by Steve Blum
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The California assembly has backed off from giving AT&T a free pass to yank out wireline service in less lucrative rural and inner city communities, but it’s moving ahead with a plan to completely re-write the way telecommunications and other utilities are regulated.

On the same day it put AT&T’s copper killer bill on what appears to be terminal hold, the assembly appropriations committee unanimously approved a constitutional amendment that would, in effect, turn utility regulation into just another state function, carried out by departments answerable to the legislature and the governor.… More

The obligatory net neutrality decision coming soon post

30 May 2016 by Steve Blum
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Perhaps as soon as tomorrow, a federal appeals court in Washington will decide whether or not the Federal Communications Commission 1. has the legal authority to impose common carrier rules on broadband service and 2. whether it followed all the necessary procedures when it did so.

The challenge was filed by a nearly universal coalition of big (and a few small) Internet service providers, who, naturally enough, do not want the FCC telling them how to run their businesses, whether or not it’s with the promised (but not guaranteed) light touch.… More