public policy

Private capital is part of the investment plan for broadband on California’s central coast

27 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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Nice location for a meeting.

The California Public Utilities Commission paid a visit to Carmel this month. Periodically, the commissioners hold hearings and conduct meetings in different communities around the state. This time, they met with local leaders, conducted a regular voting meeting and held a two hour public participation meeting where anyone could speak for three minutes.

Several members of the Central Coast Broadband Consortium attended, to talk about what we’re doing and what we need here.… More

CPUC briefed on central coast broadband projects

26 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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Connected central coast.

The Central Coast Broadband Consortium was well represented when the California Public Utilities Commission met in Carmel this month. I was one of the speakers, with the assignment of highlighting the proposals made from our region for grants and loans from the California Advanced Services Fund…

Good afternoon commissioners. My name is Steve Blum, my company is Tellus Venture Associates, I’m on the executive team for the Central Coast Broadband Consortium, one of the fourteen regional consortia you’ve generously funded, thank you very much.

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Grumbles aside, no one is opposing giving California's Digital 395 project $10 million more

25 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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The opposition has yet to emerge.

The first round of comments on a proposed $10 million spiff for the Digital 395 middle mile project from the California Advanced Services Fund are in, and so far, no one has registered formal opposition to it. On 5 September 2013, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is scheduled to decide whether to cover the overrun costs racked up by the project. That would boost the state’s contribution to $29 million, which is on top of $80 million from the 2009 federal stimulus program and about $1 million from project principals and local agencies.… More

Locals urge CPUC to close eastern California fiber gap


Hard to connect.

Mono County officials have come out in full support of giving another $10 million to the Digital 395 middle mile project, which would link Mono, Inyo and eastern Kern counties to major fiber hubs. Top elected officials – the board of supervisors and the sheriff – sent letters to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), as did the county administrator.

All three letters echoed the same themes: Mono and Inyo Counties would be hurt by having the fiber network split into disconnected northern and southern halves, and the loss of service to communities in the gap, particularly June Lake, would be damaging.… More

Assembly committee puts California broadband subsidy bill on hold

22 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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Don’t keep us in suspense.

The fate of California broadband infrastructure subsidies will come down to a mass legislative horse trading session next week. Senate bill 740, which would add $90 million to the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) and allow independent ISPs and cities to apply for broadband construction money under limited circumstances, was shuffled to the assembly appropriations committee’s suspense file yesterday. The move was expected.

It’s a procedural limbo that was originally created to allow lawmakers to delay significant spending or tax bills until after the state budget is approved.… More

California broadband infrastructure money tapped for mapping project

21 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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Truth is more expensive than fiction.

The core information resource used by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to decide where to subsidise broadband infrastructure projects is the California Broadband Availability map. It was originally funded by a $2.3 million grant from the federal stimulus program in 2009.

Over the past four years, it’s gone from being a difficult to read PDF printout to an interactive platform that can show broadband service availability down to the census block level, and includes both data provided by service providers and information gathered independently by the CPUC and others.… More

Admin costs take a bigger bite out of California broadband subsidy fund

20 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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I thought there was more in there.

The amount of money available to the current round of California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) infrastructure grant applicants is probably something like $135 million, considerably less than the $148 million I’ve been estimating. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has published the proposed budget for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) for next fiscal year, which runs from July 2014 to June 2015. It shows a sharp increase in overhead costs for running the program, including an extra $1.5 million for the state’s broadband mapping project.… More

China has new national broadband plan, goals

19 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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I signed up for broadband and all I got was this little red book.

China wants to lead the broadband world in something other than malicious Internet attacks, 42% of which originate there, putting it comfortably ahead of the U.S., at second place with 10%. So China’s State Council – the equivalent of its cabinet – is setting a target of 50% national wireline broadband availability by 2015. By 2020, the goal is to connect the entire country – all 1.3 billion people or so – with a minimum of 20 Mbps in urban areas and 4 Mbps in rural areas, and top speeds of 100 Mbps.… More

California broadband grant requests inch toward decisions

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) staff have started drafting resolutions for funding at least some of the broadband infrastructure proposals submitted last February for subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).

The fact that staff is putting the necessary paperwork together – preliminary environmental assessments and public safety impact, for example – doesn’t mean that a project will rate highly enough to be recommended, but it does mean that the preliminary task of determining whether a project is eligible for CASF money is complete, or nearly so.… More

Partnership of public and private interests floated for comprehensive fiber plan on California's central coast

15 August 2013 by Steve Blum
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Fiber for the Coast backer Bud Colligan.

Two entrepreneurs, Bud Colligan and Larry Samuels, have published a plan for improving broadband access in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties. The objective is to…

…be a foundation for an economic renaissance for all citizens of the Monterey Bay region. It can help create clean technology jobs, reduce out of region commuting and in region traffic, strengthen the tax base, and improve the educational and health care systems, all the while balancing the economic concerns with the longstanding ethos of environmental stewardship that characterizes the Monterey Bay region.

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