Steve Blum's Blog
Raising the FCC’s definition of acceptable home broadband from the current 4 Mbps down/1 Mbps up level to 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up would certainly be symbolic. The practical effect, though, depends on what the FCC and other agencies – state and local – do with it.
An article on Ars Technica says that FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has a draft report under review that would raise the bar to 25/3.… More
“Radio frequencies are going to become the most scare resource on the planet, more scarce than oil”, said Ulf Ewaldsson, Chief Technology Officer for Ericsson. “Frequencies are scarce because there are better frequencies and less better frequencies”.
Speaking at CES this afternoon, he said that current frequency allocations often reflect policy choices intended to keep particular interests happy rather than making the most efficient use of spectrum possible. Television broadcasters in Europe are one example, he said.… More
The new national standard for acceptable home broadband speeds is on its way to being 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. At CES yesterday, FCC chair Tom Wheeler endorsed raising it from the current 4 down/1up spec. According to Ars Technica, Wheeler is circulating a draft report – the annual broadband progress report required by congress but only sporadically produced by the FCC – that would declare 4/1 unacceptable and set 25/3 as the new minimum.
Common carrier regulation of broadband infrastructure and the Internet access services that ride on it appears all but certain at this point. Yesterday, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler told a CES audience that new network neutrality rules will be circulated privately at the FCC on 5 February 2015, and voted on by the full commission at its meeting on the 26th. You can bet it’ll be a party line vote in favor of his plan.… More
“I think the devils going to be in the details”, FCC commissioner Ajit Pai told a CES audience yesterday. “Unfortunately, Title II is not going to be the panacea that some people think it will be, especially when we get to the massive discussion of forbearance, deciding which types of regulation we’re going to heed and which types we’re going to jettison”.
Short version: he’s not a fan.
Title II is the section of federal telecoms law that deals with common carrier rules, and it’s about to be applied to broadband infrastructure and services.… More
Immediately after FCC chair Tom Wheeler announced that common carrier broadband rules are on the way, the 4 other commissioners spoke at a panel session, also at CES. All were circumspect about Wheeler’s plan – they haven’t seen it yet, at least not officially.
Democrats Jessica Rosenworcel and Mignon Clyburn made generally positive comments. The two republicans – Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly – expressed concerns.
That’s all in line with past statements and positions.… More
“There’s a way to do Title II right that says that many parts of Title II are inappropriate and would thwart investment” said FCC chairman Tom Wheeler today at CES. “A model has been set in the wireless business that’s had billions of dollars of investment”.
“We’re going to propose rules that say no blocking, no throttling…all that list of issues. And that there is a yardstick against which behavior should be measured, and that yardstick is just and reasonable”.… More
Race Telecommunications is on the way to becoming the fiber king of eastern California. On New Year’s Eve, Race submitted 3 more grant applications to California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for fiber-to-the-home projects in Mono, Inyo and eastern Kern counties: Gigafy Backus, Gigafy Mono and Gigafy North 395.
Backus – actually, the Backus Road area – is south of the Mojave Air and Space Port, where Race received its first grant from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) in 2010.… More
The new round of grant and loan proposals for the California Advanced Services Fund is remarkably different from the 2013 batch. Back then, 32 proposals were dumped on the CPUC all at once, ready or not. This time around, the application window will stay open until the money is gone, which means applicants can prioritise quality over deadline driven speed. And, it is hoped, the review process won’t be as clogged or as fraught – if an application is rejected now, it can be fixed and resubmitted.… More
Utility policy and the way it’s implemented, including the possibility of a more activist form of broadband regulation, will be significantly different at the California Public Utilities Commission in 2015. The two most powerful jobs – president and
In 11 months, Michael Picker moved from a job as an energy advisor to Governor Jerry Brown to a seat on the commission to the top job as president, assuming the California senate agrees.… More
