public policy

CPUC delays votes on copper network investigation, Comcast deal

20 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission won’t, in all likelihood, be voting on either a proposal to stop a study of AT&T and Verizon’s wireline networks or on formally rejecting Comcast’s defunct request to buy Time Warner’s California cable systems and transfer Charter’s to its control. Both of those items were on the CPUC’s hold list this afternoon, and rescheduled for consideration in two weeks, at the 11 June 2015 meeting. Commissioner Mike Florio asked for the delay on the study vote; staff pulled the Comcast decision.… More

Charter pushes ahead with bid to expand California footprint via Bright House purchase

20 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Not dead yet.

Well, the deal lives. Charter Communications is still in the hunt to take over Bright House Networks. Reuters reported that the deal was off, following the crash of the Comcast-Time Warner-Charter mega-merger. But if anything was actually broken in the first place, it’s now been fixed, according to a press release from Charter…

The companies remain committed to completing their previously announced transaction on the same economic and governance terms.

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Verizon tries to leave California before anyone finds out how bad its network is

19 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Vanishing point.

The California Public Utilities Commission doesn’t need facts, it just needs to wave good bye and assume Frontier Communications will pick up the crumbling pieces of Verizon’s copper network. That’s what Verizon is claiming, anyway, in comments filed with the CPUC, endorsing a proposal by commission president Michael Picker to spike a technical evaluation of the condition of Verizon’s and AT&T’s decaying copper networks.

The [advocacy groups supporting a network study] claim that before the Commission can authorize the transfer of Verizon to Frontier, it must know the physical condition of Verizon’s facilities to determine whether Verizon bears responsibility for any “neglect of the network before the transfer is approved.”

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FCC muni broadband preemption challenged by North Carolina

18 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Now, go home.

North Carolina is joining Tennessee, sorta, in challenging a decision by the Federal Communications Commission to negate laws in the two states that put tight restrictions on municipal broadband enterprises. Last week, North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper asked a federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia to throw out the preemption, saying the FCC was butting in where it had no authority to do so…

In the Order, the FCC preempts North Carolina’s statutory law…governing municipal provisioning and operation of broadband communications services.

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Comcast tells CPUC to unring the bell

17 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Coming from Philadelphia and all, Comcast thinks it knows about bells.

The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on Thursday on whether or not to deny Comcast permission to take over Time Warner and Charter cable systems in the state. On the one hand, it is pretty pointless because the companies have cancelled the mega deal. On the other, it matters because the basis for rejecting the merger rests on a particular interpretation of federal law that, if accepted, gives the CPUC authority to “encourage the deployment on a reasonable and timely basis of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans” by evaluating the effect of corporate telecoms deals and other transactions on broadband infrastructure and services in California.… More

Internet companies' seminal argument against common carrier rules slams glow in the dark prophylactic

15 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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The telecoms companies and associated lobbyists that are challenging the Federal Communication Commission’s common carrier rules for the Internet did the completely expected and asked an appeals court to put the new regulations on hold. The move followed the FCC’s completely expected denial of a similar request.

The arguments are pretty much the same. Again, the companies and lobbyists are pulling a public relations stunt by saying hey, it’s okay if the stuff about no blocking goes into effect because we’re such high minded corporate citizens that we’re doing it anyway.… More

Fiber to the home subsidies approved for two California communities

14 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Fiber to the cabin coming to Wrightwood.

The first two broadband infrastructure grants of the year, totaling $3.3 million, were approved last week by the California Public Utilities Commission. Ultimate Internet Access’s Helendale and Wrightwood projects sailed through on a unanimous vote by commissioners. Both are fiber to the home proposals promising to deliver a gigabit up and down to about a couple thousand residents each for $70 per month.
With one exception, the projects as approved were the same as originally outlined last month by CPUC staff.… More

CPUC considers whether copper ignorance is broadband bliss

12 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Hey, our customers are cutting the cord, why can’t we chop the copper?

AT&T and Verizon don’t want the California Public Utilities Commission to launch a study of the condition of their rotting copper line networks, and the new president of the commission, Michael Picker, wants to accommodate them.

In 2013, the commission decided to take a look at the core telephone network infrastructure maintained, or not, by AT&T and Verizon, as part of a review of service standards that telephone companies are expected to meet.… More

FCC declines to shoot itself in the head

11 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Oh, baby, you are so talented – and they are so dumb!

Check that one off the list. Pro forma petitions to delay enforcement of common carrier rules for broadband infrastructure and service were denied by the Federal Communications Commission on Friday. The request was made by pretty much every Internet service provider in the country, or at least the lobbyists representing them. They did it because it was a necessary legal hoop they had to jump through to be able to do what they really want: ask a federal appeals court to put everything on hold while they try to get the new rules thrown out completely.… More

Patent troll fight moves to, but not through the senate


John Oliver explains patent trolls and the U.S. senate.

The U.S. senate started working on its own version of an anti-patent troll bill with great optimism last week but, like a similar effort in the house of representatives, it’s bogging down in the Washington legislative swamp.

The objective is to keep shell companies from buying up patents and engaging the services of the predatory bar to launch bogus lawsuits and collection efforts against thousands of small companies, in the hopes that maybe hundreds of them will just write a check to make them go away.… More