public policy – Page 17 – Steve Blum's Blog

Picker ends his term as CPUC president

16 August 2019 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, public policy

Yesterday was Michael Picker’s last meeting as president of the California Public Utilities Commission. He stepped down at the request of California governor Gavin Newsom, who named Marybel Batjer, his strike team leader, to head the commission. She’ll be able to assume the job while the state senate decides whether to confirm her appointment.

Picker leaves behind positive accomplishments. He took over from Michael Peevey, who was under criminal investigation for backroom dealings. The switch from Peevey’s big man on campus persona to Picker’s soporific style was effective in dampening much of the heated criticism of the CPUC at the time.… More

California has fewer worries about local property preemptions as FCC cedes ground in defence of wireless permit ruling

12 August 2019 by Steve Blum
ab57, fcc, pole attachment, public policy, small cells

Tactical retreat well describes much of the Federal Communication Commission’s defence of its heretofor sweeping rewrite of rules regarding local government pole rentals and permits for small(ish) cell sites. It goes to great lengths to explain that its bargain basement “safe harbor” price for permits and rental rates “is not a ceiling”.

It also backs down from what appeared to be a total preemption of publicly owned property located in the public right of way, limiting it to cases where “the property in question is controlled by the same government entity that controls the rights-of-way” and there’s a “‘temptation’ for governments to seek to ‘insulate conduct from federal preemption’ by ‘blending’ their regulatory and proprietary roles”.… More

FCC small cell decision “not logical and rational” D.C. court rules

9 August 2019 by Steve Blum
ab57, fcc, pole attachment, public policy, small cells

The Federal Communications Commission’s March 2018 decision to scrap federal environmental and historical reviews for small cell sites was “arbitrary and capricious” according to the federal appeals court based in the District of Columbia, aka the D.C. circuit. In an opinion issued this morning, the D.C. circuit judges said “the commission failed to justify its confidence that small cell deployments pose little to no cognizable religious, cultural, or environmental risk”.

Today’s decision does not directly affect appeals of the FCC’s September 2018 wireless or August 2018 wireline rulings – those are being fought out in the ninth circuit federal appeals court in San Francisco.… More

Update: FCC limits the extent of its pole ownership preemption, as it tries to defend it against appeals

9 August 2019 by Steve Blum
ab57, fcc, pole attachment, public policy, small cells

Update, 9 August 2019.

In its brief, the FCC backed down from what appeared to be a blanket assertion that all publicly owned property within the public right of way is the same thing as the public right of way. This preemption of local property rights only applies “when the property in question is controlled by the same government entity that controls the rights-of-way”, the brief said.

By that reasoning, if a city owns a light pole along a road controlled by a state agency such as Caltrans, it can charge a mobile carrier as much as it wants to use it.… More

“Hunger games” duels for broadband subsidies proposed by FCC

5 August 2019 by Steve Blum
casf, connect america fund, cpuc, fcc, public policy

Broadband subsidies from the Federal Communications Commission are paid for out of the Universal Service Fund" (USF) which, in turn, gets its money from taxes on telephone bills. The FCC runs four programs that way: the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (formerly known as the Connect America Fund), the e-rate program that pays for broadband service to schools and libraries, the rural health care program, which does the same for hospitals, and the Lifeline program, which buys down service costs for low income households.… More

FCC approves new broadband subsidy and data collection programs, but each ignores the other

2 August 2019 by Steve Blum
connect america fund, fcc, public policy, rural broadband

The Federal Communications Commission will be asking for comments on its plan to spend, at first, $16 billion and eventually $20 billion on rural broadband subsidies, with a minimum speed requirement of 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. It’s also moving ahead with a new broadband availability data collection process, based on electronic map files, rather than spreadsheets. The two initiatives were approved at yesterday’s FCC meeting.

Both democratic commissioners – Jessica Roseworcel and Geoffrey Starks – objected to the republican majority’s blind acceptance of broadband availability data submitted by Internet service providers as a basis for deciding where subsidies should be spent.… More

FCC’s San Francisco broadband preemption appealed

26 July 2019 by Steve Blum
fcc, mdu, mte, public policy, san francisco

San Francisco is taking the Federal Communications Commission to court. Again. On Monday, the City and County of San Francisco filed a challenge to the FCC’s preemption of its broadband access ordinance with the ninth circuit federal appeals court, also based in San Francisco.

The ordinance requires building owners to allow tenants to buy broadband service from the provider of their choice. Providers are able, under the ordinance, to use any available wiring inside the building that’s owned by the landlord to deliver such service.… More

Money talks or AT&T broadband walks, CPUC study shows

25 July 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, cpuc, public policy, uc berkeley

How much money you and your neighbors make determines whether or not you have access to modern broadband service and infrastructure. The network practices study released on Monday by the California Public Utilities Commission cites conclusive evidence of aggressive redlining by AT&T. It is a major – and actionable – report that makes the case against the two companies, but its conclusions come as no surprise.

A study done in 2017 by U.C. Berkeley’s Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society found that…

The median household income of California communities with access to AT&T’s fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network is $94,208.

… More

When Californians are trapped in monopoly telecom markets, AT&T and Frontier take the money and run

24 July 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, cpuc, frontiercommunications, public policy

Competition matters. When telephone or cable companies face a competitive threat – either from each other or from an independent Internet service provider, they respond by upgrading infrastructure and service, and by cranking up the volume on promotional discounts. The converse is true: no competition means no infrastructure investment or service upgrades or marketing love.

That’s a lesson I’ve learned time and again with municipal and independent broadband projects. When a city or an independent credibly threatens to enter the market, incumbents respond.… More

AT&T redlines poor and rural Californians because it can, Frontier because it can’t afford otherwise, CPUC study says

23 July 2019 by Steve Blum
ab1366, att, cpuc, frontiercommunications, public policy

Corporate choices made by AT&T and Verizon, and Frontier Communications’ dire financial condition created the growing divide between relatively modern telecoms infrastructure in affluent urban and suburban communities, and the decaying infrastructure in poor and rural ones. The result is “deteriorating service quality”, “persistent disinvestment”, an “investment focus on higher income communities” and an “increased focus on areas most heavily impacted by competition”, according to a study done for the California Public Utilities Commission by a Boston-based consulting company.… More