public policy

ISPs and real estate developers should tango in public

9 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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It’s more fun when people watch.

Installing modern broadband infrastructure in newly built housing developments often involves a dance between developers, who increasingly want reimbursement for what they believe to be the full cost, and service providers, who want it as cheap as possible and might not be very interested in the first place.

It’s usually a private negotiation, with the results becoming apparent only after people start moving in. In Gonzales, California for example (full disclosure: the City of Gonzales is a client of mine) new housing developments have been left with conduit installed for cable broadband service but never used.… More

City of Gonzales approves simple dig once policy

A simple, one-page dig once/shadow conduit policy was adopted earlier this month by the Gonzales, California city council. The policy is a simple way to give public works staff the ability to include broadband conduit in road maintenance, utility digs and similar projects. It’s an adaptation of a staff-level policy that was implemented by the City of Salinas a few years ago, forming the basis for its recently launched commercial/industrial broadband network initiative.

Under the policy, the assumption is that conduit will be installed any time the city opens up a trench, subject to the public works director’s discretion…

Unless waived by the Public Works Director on the basis of undue burden, or an unfavorable cost-benefit analysis, or the consideration of other relevant factors, Gonzales will install or have installed communications conduit whenever the City undertakes or authorizes the following types of projects:

  1. New street, road, sidewalk, bike path, or other transportation infrastructure construction.
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Where's the value in broadband service subsidies?

6 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Network effects.

When you subscribe to broadband service, you enjoy its benefits. But your purchase also benefits everybody else on the Internet: the more connections a network has, the more useful – and more valuable – it can be. In an analysis of a ban on Internet access taxes, the non-partisan congressional research service (CRS) discussed the rationale for subsidising broadband access…

When an individual is making a decision about whether to purchase Internet access…they will consider only their personal benefits from accessing the Internet and may not consider the external benefits they will create by purchasing Internet access.

… More

Broadband development game revealed to U.K. home buyers and local councils

5 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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British Telecom is putting its cards on the table for real estate developers (and prospective home buyers) to see. The company has been criticised for not providing fast broadband service to new housing developments. There’s been plenty of finger pointing and blame shifting along the way, with no easy way to tell why some homes get service and some don’t. That’s changing now.

If developers disclose their plans at least nine months (ideally, more) before the first residents are expected to move in, BT will provide…

  • Confirmation of whether or not the site is covered by existing [fiber to the cabinet/node] infrastructure, which will be connected for free.
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FCC accused of rolling over for Obama

3 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Click for the big picture.

Republicans in the U.S. senate published a report this week that slammed the way Federal Communications Commission developed and adopted net neutrality rules last year, particularly the influence that president Obama exerted over FCC chairman Tom Wheeler. There is certainly partisan intent behind the report, but along with the rhetoric it also includes emails and other documents that back up what newspapers had already reported: Wheeler’s cherished no lobbyist left behind approach – leave net neutrality rules open to ongoing wrangling by Beltway insiders – was deep sixed after Obama publicly endorsed a comprehensive common carrier approach.… More

California's broadband tax on phone service poses hard choice

2 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Is it a rock or a hard place?

The ban on state or local Internet access taxes creates a dilemma for policy makers in California. Right now, some broadband infrastructure construction is subsidised by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), which gets its money from a relatively small tax on telephone bills.

In other words, telephone customers are paying to improve service and, presumably, reduce costs for broadband subscribers. Nearly all people who buy broadband service are also telephone customers – the CASF tax is applied to mobile and VoIP service too – but the reverse isn’t true.… More

Broadband tax ban isn't as complete as you might think

28 February 2016 by Steve Blum
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Taxable.

From a subscriber’s point of view, there is no state or local tax, sales or otherwise, on “Internet access service”. It’s banned by federal law. But that doesn’t mean Internet service is completely tax free. Accord to a report by the congressional research service, the Internet service tax ban only applies to end users…

Internet access service is defined as “a service that enables users to access content, information, electronic mail, or other services offered over the Internet and may also include access to proprietary content, information, and other services as part of a package of services offered to consumers”.

… More

Bipartisan support for simplicity at the FCC

24 February 2016 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communication Commission’s decision to move ahead with writing new rules for set top boxes was made on a party line 3 to 2 vote. But that’s not the way the vote on the final rules will necessarily go.

FCC chair Tom Wheeler is all for the draft rules as written – no surprise, his office wrote them. So is Mignon Clyburn, a fellow democrat. The third democrat, Jessica Rosenworcel is not as enthusiastic, though…

This rulemaking is complicated…The most successful regulatory efforts are simple ones.

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FCC approves, publishes draft set top box rules

22 February 2016 by Steve Blum
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As expected, the Federal Communications Commission moved ahead last week with a plan to rewrite the rules for network operators – cable, telephone and satellite – that deliver television channels to consumers, requiring them to allow third parties such as consumer electronics manufacturers and software developers to access their programming streams. The shorthand way of explaining it is to say that the set top box market will be open to competition – anyone would be able to license the necessary technology, build a box and sell it to consumers.… More

U.S. senate looks at conduit requirements for federal highway projects

21 February 2016 by Steve Blum
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The “Mobile Now” bill that was introduced in the U.S. senate is mostly about freeing up more government-reserved spectrum for broadband purposes, but it also includes an endorsement, if not a full-on commitment, to a dig once policy. It expresses a desire for federal transportation officials to include conduit in highway projects…

It is the sense of Congress that Federal agencies should endeavor to create policy that–

  1. evaluates and provides for the inclusion of broadband conduit installation in federally funded highway construction projects;
  2. provides for such inclusion without negatively impacting the safety, operations, and maintenance of the highway facility, its users, or others;
  3. promotes investment and competition by ensuring that communications providers may access such conduit on a nondiscriminatory basis; and
  4. limits any burden on State departments of transportation incurred by the inclusion of broadband conduit in such projects.
… More