public policy

Low USDA broadband grant standards dig a deeper digital divide

29 December 2014 by Steve Blum
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Rural broadband projects have another shot at getting funding from the U.S. department of agriculture. The rural utilities service (RUS) has opened another grant application window for its Community Connect program (h/t to Tom Glegola at CPUC for the heads up).

The key eligibility parameters are…

  • The project must be in an area “where Broadband Service does not currently exist”. That’s defined as a combined – down plus up – speed of 3 Mbps. For example, if there’s service available at 1.5 Mbps up and 1.5 Mbps down, fixed or mobile, then the area isn’t eligible for a grant.
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Spend broadband subsidies on state of the art service, CPUC report says

27 December 2014 by Steve Blum
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Don’t subsidise old, slow broadband technology. That’s one of the conclusions of an analysis of mobile broadband performance done for the California Public Utilities Commission (H/T to Jim Warner for the pointer).

Right now, the CPUC’s minimum service availability mark is 6 Mbps down and 1.5 Mbps up – if a community gets less than that, it’s eligible for broadband infrastructure subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund. Conversely though, to get those subsidies, broadband projects only have to meet that level of service – the minimum is good enough.… More

No Google Fiber in Christmas stockings for hopeful cities

26 December 2014 by Steve Blum
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Naughty or nice? Google won’t say.

The 34 communities across the U.S. that were hoping Google would come down the chimney yesterday and leave a fiber-to-the-home project under the tree will have to wait to find out if they made it onto the nice list. Back in February, Google said it would pick the winners by the end of the year, but it’s told prospective communities it’s going to take a little longer than they thought.… More

Governor Brown promotes Michael Picker to CPUC president

23 December 2014 by Steve Blum
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Michael Picker moves up.

Michael Picker is the new president of the California Public Utilities Commission, assuming the California senate endorses the promotion announced this afternoon by governor Jerry Brown.

Picker first took a seat on the commission in February. He was working for Brown as an energy policy aide and chosen to fill the position left vacant when Mark Ferron resigned for health reasons. With a background in the environmental arena, he’s worked for the mayor of Sacramento, in the state treasurer’s office and as a political consultant.… More

CPUC considers eventual convergence of rural broadband and phone

23 December 2014 by Steve Blum
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Telecommunications service and infrastructure is subsidised in a couple of different ways in rural California. The California Advanced Services Fund pays the lion’s share of the cost of building broadband infrastructure in under and unserved areas, and the California High Cost Fund supports telephone service as well as infrastructure. The latter is divided between rural areas served by bigger incumbents, like AT&T, Verizon and Frontier, and those served by small rural companies, like Pinnacles Telephone or Ponderosa.… More

CPUC president takes pride in California's policy leadship and leaders as he leaves

22 December 2014 by Steve Blum
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I surrender!.

Michael Peevey gave his final remarks as president of the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday, following a meeting filled with tributes from friends and colleagues and seasoned with personal invective from perpetually outraged activists.

In summing up his 12 years on the commission, he said…

If I had to point to the one thing, perhaps, that I’m most proudest of at this commission, it’s what I’ve done to drive [General Order] 156 from $1 billion to $8.6 billion in spend on minority owned firms and disabled veteran owned firms…There’s no place in the United States that comes close to this.

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North Korea versus Comcast: guess who's fighting for an open Internet?

20 December 2014 by Steve Blum
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What do you mean, my Netflix is buffering!

As terabytes of emails and other data bounce around the web, the bad guy in the latest mega-crack story is beginning look less like North Korea and more like Sony and its corporate brethren. First, Sony hires one of the more notorious members of the predatory bar to threaten news outlets if they dare to use any of that information. Then it caves to pressure and threats – apparently originating in North Korea – and cancels the release of The Interview.… More

Friends and foes give CPUC president a raucous send off

19 December 2014 by Steve Blum
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Mike, half the people are here are here to congratulate you on your retirement…the others are here to make sure you’re retiring. It’s pretty indicative of the dynamics of this agency.
Danny Curtin, California Conference of Carpenters

Those few words summed up a sometimes laudatory, sometimes vitrolic 3 hours as friends, past and present colleagues, anti-wireless activists and others praised and attacked retiring California Public Utilities Commission president Michael Peevey at his final meeting yesterday in San Francisco.… More

Public housing broadband heading for second class status in California

18 December 2014 by Steve Blum
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Lower broadband performance standards for Californians living in public housing are one step away from adoption by the California Public Utilities Commission. As it stands now, later this morning the CPUC will approve subsidy rules for broadband facility upgrades in publicly supported housing that set 1.5 Mbps download speeds as the minimum acceptable level, and no service level requirements at all for upload speeds. The stuff that’s installed has to be capable of supporting higher speeds, but actual performance is optional.… More

You don't have to drive to Silicon Valley if you're already there

17 December 2014 by Steve Blum
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Santa Cruz broadband policy keeps business in town, Silicon Valley leaders say.

Smart application of good broadband development policy helps local economies grow by attracting new businesses and helping existing ones grow. The place to look for it is Santa Cruz County, according to the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. It’s an example that Silicon Valley sorely needs.

The group, which was founded in 1978 by David Packard and represents about 400 of Silicon Valley’s heaviest corporate hitters, announced it was giving its “Turning Red Tape into Red Carpet” award to Santa Cruz County, and supervisor Zach Friend in particular, recognising his effort over the past year and a half to simplify the rules for planting broadband infrastructure in public roads and placing it on county property.… More