public policy

Don't expect a chance to challenge California-wide cable franchise renewals

24 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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Stifle yourself.

The first statewide cable franchises issued by the California Public Utilities Commission will start expiring in the next three or four years. Those franchises superseded local video service franchises issued individually by cities and counties and run for ten years. To get ready for that, the commission is scheduled to vote on new renewal rules at its meeting on Thursday, 26 June 2014.

The proposal on the table now says, in essence, the same rules apply to renewals as to the original applications, with one exception: companies that are “in violation of any final nonappealable court order issued pursuant to California video franchise law” will lose their franchises.… More

Broadband infrastructure gets same financing status as roads, water in California bill

23 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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At the end, it’s a brilliant idea.

The twists and turns of the legislative season in Sacramento produce surprises. This year is no different. Assembly bill 2292 was originally targeted to rail projects in Oakland, but other legislation took care of it. So following a conversation with San Leandro mayor Stephen Cassidy the bill’s author, assemblyman Rob Bonta, a democrat who represents both cities, turned it into a way to pay for municipal broadband projects.

Cities and counties in California can form infrastructure financing districts (IFDs) to pay for building “regional scale public works”.… More

ViaSat doesn't want you to know its customers still choke on FCC broadband tests

22 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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ViaSat convinced the FCC to suppress this data in its latest report. Click for bigger version.

ViaSat showed the best speed and consistency in the FCC’s latest round of national broadband testing, but those same measurements also show that its subscribers don’t get anywhere near as much data as landline customers. Similar to last year’s poor report card, the FCC results show that about a third of ViaSat’s customers get less than 2 gigabytes a month and only one of those tested hit over 10 GB.… More

People matter, not paperwork, for rural broadband development

21 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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The success of broadband subsidies targeted to rural areas should be evaluated, at least in part, on the number of rural subscribers projects actually attract. That’s one of the conclusions of an investigation by the federal government accounting office into $3 billion worth of grants and loans given out by the U.S. department of agriculture’s rural utilities service as part of the 2009 stimulus program.

There were two pots of broadband stimulus money back then: the NTIA’s broadband technology opportunities program and RUS’s broadband initiatives program (BIP).… More

DSL is the new dial-up

20 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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On the whole, Internet service providers in the U.S. performed about as well in 2013 as they did in 2012 – largely hitting the same speed and consistency benchmarks. That’s one of the conclusions of the latest FCC report on the performance of consumer-grade fixed broadband services. Diving into the detail, though, shows that DSL-based service is falling further behind the performance levels achieved by cable and fiber technologies.

The FCC puts boxes inside the homes of volunteers across the U.S.,… More

You can't patent just an idea, supreme court rules again

19 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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The Air Force can now defend Earth without fear of trolls.

Doing the job that the patent office should have done in the first place, the U.S. supreme court stepped up to the plate and swatted down a long line of patent trolls. In an unanimous opinion issued today and written by justice Clarence Thomas, the court said that an Australian company, Alice Corporation, can’t take a common, centuries (millennia?) old financial practice – using a middleman to keep both parties honest – and claim a patent on it just because it’s being done on a computer…

There is no dispute that a computer is a tangible system…or that many computer-implemented claims are formally addressed to patent-eligible subject matter.

… More

California broadband construction cost leap clears key hurdle

18 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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Work undone.

A couple of tweaks were made, but the substance of assembly bill 2272 remains the same following discussion and approval by the California senate energy, utilities and communications committee yesterday. AB 2272 would impose union pay and work rules requirements on all broadband infrastructure projects funded by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), nearly doubling the cost for both taxpayers and ISPs.

The committee rejected a proposal to limit the new rules to future projects, opting instead to make the requirement retroactive.… More

Point and counterpoint for new broadband subsidy rules in California

17 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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Eight rebuttals were filed yesterday, in response to the 14 opening comments on a draft of new rules for infrastructure construction subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).

Three sets of reply comments came from service providers, or those who represent them. Frontier, a coalition of small rural telephone companies and the lobbying front for the California cable industry – CCTA – followed up their original comments by largely agreeing with each other, and objecting to any notion that greater accountability should be expected of them.… More

California senate committee better prepped to consider bill raising broadband construction costs

16 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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A new barrier to better broadband in California?

There’s finally some push back to the idea that the cost of building ratepayer-subsidised broadband infrastructure should nearly double in California. An analysis prepared for the state senate’s energy, communications and utilities committee lists two industry lobbying groups – CalTel and CalCom – and one company – Consolidated Communications, formerly SureWest – as opposing assembly bill 2272, which would bring all projects funded by the California Advanced Services Fund under what is euphemistically called the state’s prevailing wage law.… More

California wake up call is Verizon's headache

15 June 2014 by Steve Blum
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Verizon’s objections to proposed changes for broadband infrastructure subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) would be forgivable coming from an east coast venture capitalist who woke up on Redondo Beach with a raging hangover and a contract stapled to his naked chest awarding him ownership of the local telephone system. But not from an incumbent telco that claims to be perpetually upgrading its network in California.

In a ranting letter, submitted as comments on a draft of new CASF rules last week, a Verizon staff lobbyist wrote…

The draft would require existing providers to submit a letter by September 26, 2014 that declares its intent to upgrade any area in all of California that is not served.

… More