public policy

Local control over wireless permits, CPUC management on the table as California legislature returns

17 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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The California legislature is back from its summer vacation today. Four weeks are left in the floor schedule: both houses are supposed to wrap up debate and voting for the year by 11 September 2015. Several bills with implications for telecommunications policy are still in the mix, including…

  • Assembly bill 57 – requires local agencies to meet federal “shot clock” requirements for processing permit applications for cell sites and other wireless broadband projects.
  • Assembly bill 806 – allows the installation of antennae and wireless nodes on overhead utility lines, more or less without local approval.
… More

It's a brand new game for California broadband subsidies

13 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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Expect a different kind of give and take.

Until this week, if you wanted to apply for a grant to build broadband infrastructure in an unserved or poorly served area of California, you could do so with a reasonable expectation that there was enough money in the kitty to cover your request. Not anymore.
Everything changed on Monday when Inyo Networks and Race Telecommunications each filed grant proposals in the $50 million range. That meant that the total amount of pending grant applications is more than the available money in the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).… More

Californian towns redlined by Charter targeted for broadband construction subsidies

12 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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Blue indicates Charter’s state cable franchise areas where it hasn’t upgraded to DOCSIS 3 capability, as it has in the yellow areas.

Race Telecommunications has zeroed in on a big and densely populated area of the San Bernardino County desert that’s been redlined by Charter Communications, and neglected by Verizon. Wireline broadband service in the area generally fails to meet the California Public Utilities Commission’s minimum standard of 6 Mbps down and 1.5 Mbps up.… More

Closer look points to more California communities redlined by Charter

10 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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Charter offers broadband in the yellow areas, but not the blue. Click for a much bigger version.

A second, more detailed look at map analysis done by the Central Coast Broadband Consortium (full disclosure: I’m part of that effort) shows even more rural areas redlined out of broadband service by Charter Communications in California.

The technique is simple and not completely foolproof, but in the few places where the ground truth has been checked, the results have been borne out.… More

Federal rural broadband stimulus program slammed

9 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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Not much to show for $3 billion.

The federal agriculture department’s Rural Utilities Service is broken, according to a long and well researched article by Tony Romm in Politico. Given $3 billion in stimulus money by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, RUS approved broadband infrastructure builds that couldn’t or wouldn’t be completed – about half of the 300 or so approved projects are still works in progress, and 42 of those never got started at all.… More

CPUC urged to do less business behind closed doors

8 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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Not the way the game should be played.

Private meetings between utility lobbyists and commissioners “render governmental decision-making invisible to the public…make commission meetings merely ceremonial…[and] corrode government ethics” according to an outside review prepared for the California Public Utilities Commission. It was one of two reports that looked at how commissioners conduct business, ahead of a meeting on Tuesday where they will consider moderate changes to rules about one on one, private meetings with utilities and others that have pending cases.… More

New rules for federal broadband loans in rural areas don't change eastern bias

3 August 2015 by Steve Blum
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Most of the broadband blank zones are in the west, most of the money goes east. Go figure.

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS) is the arm of the federal agriculture department that runs broadband grant and loan programs. It’s just published new application rules for loans to build broadband infrastructure in poorly served rural areas. Highlights include…

  • The minimum acceptable broadband speed is set at 4 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up; any area with less than that is considered unserved by federal standards.
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Everyone is wireless, who cares if copper is crap AT&T tells CPUC

31 July 2015 by Steve Blum
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Apple pie versus orange pie.

In a refreshingly honest, lay-your-cards-on-the-table move, AT&T told the California Public Utilities Commission that it shouldn’t bother investigating the condition of wireline phone systems in the state, because…

The number of wireline customers is now a small fraction of the Communications market. As of 2013, wireline customers made up only 20% of the market…Just five years prior, the wireline market was 35%.

Thus, not only is the wireline share very small, it is falling precipitously.

… More

Come and take us away, Verizon's employees tell Frontier

30 July 2015 by Steve Blum
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Hey! I’m over here.

Verizon’s unionised workforce in California want a new boss. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) dropped its previous opposition to Frontier Communication’s purchase of Verizon’s wireline telephone systems in California, after reaching an agreement with Frontier to extend the current union contract for two years, with pay increases and 100 shares of stock for each union member, and add 150 union jobs in the state.

Initially, CWA warned the California Public Utilities Commission of “the potential harm to thousands of its members in California” and lodged a protest against approval of the sale, saying “this transaction will impact the economic health of millions of households, businesses, schools, health care facilities, government agencies, and other institutions in California”.… More

$10 Internet access for low income homes is the only novel requirement of AT&T-DirecTv deal

29 July 2015 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission released the details yesterday regarding the conditions imposed on AT&T in exchange for approving its purchase of DirecTv.

Those conditions a commitment to build out and offer fiber-to-the-premise service to 12.5 million customer locations, restrictions and reporting requirements on AT&T’s management of its Internet service business, and a discount stand-alone broadband offering for low income households which is the only major element of the deal that you could call truly new.… More