public policy

Broadband rocks the 80s in California public housing

10 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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There’s an odd debate going on over whether broadband service standards should be lower in public housing projects than in the rest of California, at least when the infrastructure is subsidised by the California Advanced Services Fund.

The California Public Utilities Commission is developing rules for spending $20 million on upgrading broadband facilities in public housing. The money comes from the same pot as the state’s primary broadband infrastructure subsidy program, which sets a minimum of 6 Mbps download and 1.5 Mbps upload speeds for systems it funds.… More

Wall Street isn't fooled: the (paid) political winds are at Comcast's back

9 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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If you’re less cynical than me – not tough – then you might think the reaction of Wall Street cable TV analysts to the end of Sprint’s bid to buy T-Mobile is amazingly cynical. I call it a refreshingly honest assessment of the current coin-operated leadership at the FCC. According to a story by Daniel Frankel in FierceCable…

The reported decision by Sprint to end its $32 billion quest to buy T-Mobile will provide a significant regulatory boost to Comcast in its $45 billion attempt to buy Time Warner Cable, and AT&T in its $49 billion effort to buy DirecTV.

… More

California bill defining broadband as public infrastructure diverted for review

8 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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A proposal to include broadband infrastructure in the list of things that special infrastructure financing districts (IFD) can pay for in California has been kicked to an assembly committee.

The measure – assembly bill 2292 – was approved by the California senate earlier this week, and was headed to a vote by full assembly. But because it was done using the gut-and-amend process – the text in an earlier bill that had almost nothing to do with the subject was stripped out and replaced with broadband financing language – the bill was diverted to the local government committee for review.… More

A highly concentrated Comcast would be nasty medicine for California

7 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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There’s a great analysis by William Conlow of the impact of the Comcast/Time-Warner merger on cable market concentration in Techdirt (h/t to Bud Colligan for the pointer). Using a standard measure of market concentration – the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) – the article shows that the result of the merger will be an increase in market concentration in the U.S. as a whole, to the level of a Moderately Concentrated Market. That’s the middle tier of the HHI scale, which is well-explained in the Techdirt piece and in a linked federal department of justice manual on anti-trust assessment.… More

Comcast fights for fast track merger approval in California

6 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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Broadband is out of bounds for the California Public Utilities Commission, according to a private pitch made to the CPUC by a Comcast staff lobbyist and a trio of lawyers representing Comcast, Time-Warner and Charter. They want the CPUC to limit its review of the companies’ proposed massive merger and market swap to a very restricted evaluation of the telephone service aspects of the deal. And ignore the near monopoly control over the cable television market and the commanding position in Internet services Comcast would gain in California.… More

New public financing method for broadband clears California senate

5 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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Padilla steps up for local broadband financing.

Broadband would be added to the list of public works projects that cities and counties in California can pay for via infrastructure financing districts (IFDs), under a bill passed by the state senate yesterday on a 36 to 0 floor vote. Assembly bill 2292 started life as a way of financing rail transport at the Port of Oakland, but was gutted and rewritten by assemblyman Rob Bonta (D – Oakland), at the suggestion of San Leandro’s mayor, Stephen Cassidy.… More

Mars is underserved

2 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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NASA is asking for private sector ideas to upgrade broadband infrastructure on Mars. Right now, there’s a 2 Mbps link between Earth and Mars orbit, and 500 Kbps between orbit and rovers on the surface. More bandwidth is expected to arrive in orbit in the next few years, but not enough to keep up with planned surface missions. So NASA has issued a request for information, in the hopes of finding a partner who can offer a sustainable solution…

The RFI details possible new business models that would involve NASA contracting to purchase services from a commercial service provider, which would own and operate one or more communication relay orbiters.

… More

FCC accepts incumbent's broadband availability claims at face value

1 August 2014 by Steve Blum
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Click to see how you come out.

An interactive map and a big spreadsheet listing census blocks (careful, it’s 50 MB-plus) that are eligible for participation in the FCC’s rural broadband experiments has been posted (h/t to Tom Glegola at the CPUC for the pointer).

The rules mean different census blocks qualify for different aspects of the program, but some way, some how, all are eligible. Judging by what the FCC’s press release says, the spreadsheet is definitive: “census blocks not on this list are not eligible for funding in the rural broadband experiments”.… More

FCC offers first class and coach options for commenting on muni broadband petitions

30 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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The FCC now has two petitions in front of it, asking that state restrictions on municipal broadband be swept aside. In both cases – Chattanooga, Tennessee and Wilson, North Carolina – the cities are already operating fiber-to-the-home systems in conjunction with muni electric utilities and want to expand their service areas. The Tennessee and North Carolina laws are different, but each in its own way effectively prevents FTTH expansion outside of the city or its immediate surroundings.… More

Broadband subsidies for public housing might be wrapped in less red tape

29 July 2014 by Steve Blum
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Assuming there aren’t back channel conversations going on, there seems to be something like a consensus forming around draft rules proposed for subsidising broadband facilities and marketing programs in public housing in California.

Earlier this month, the California Public Utilities Commission released recommendations for spending $20 million on upgrading broadband infrastructure in public housing and $5 million on programs to encourage residents to subscribe to and use Internet services. The money was part of a grand deal made last year to top up the California Advanced Services Fund and expand eligibility – at least in theory – to independent Internet service providers and, to an even more limited extent, local governments.… More