public policy

Telecoms privacy, or lack thereof, is a choice you've already made

8 June 2013 by Steve Blum
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You’re gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola company.

What we’ve seen over the past week might be news, but it’s not new. Telecoms and information service providers are in an ever tightening squeeze, as public and private interests use congressional influence to access customer information for their own ends.

It’s still not clear just how enthusiastically Google, Facebook, Verizon, AT&T and others have cooperated with federal spying efforts. So far, when companies have commented, it’s been along the lines of “we’re only doing what we’re required by law to do, and nothing more.”… More

Did anyone expect Big Government to ignore Big Data?

7 June 2013 by Steve Blum

When bits and wrangling were real.

Phone records, email, file transfers, social networks, VoIP, chat and, apparently, credit card transactions. All this data and more, from and to potentially anyone in the U.S., it is said, is passing through federal government filters in pursuit of foreign terrorists.

In one respect this week’s revelations, to whatever extent true, come as no surprise. The National Security Agency, or any other intelligence organisation, is naturally inclined to lust after any massive source of data, and big telecoms, information technology and financial companies are just that.… More

Cable lobby blocking competition from broadband subsidies in federal farm bill

5 June 2013 by Steve Blum
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Don’t you dare overbuild modern telecoms systems.

Federal broadband subsidies for rural areas are up for a vote in the U.S. Senate on Thursday, and cable lobbyists are pressing hard for restrictions on construction funding. Broadband is but one tiny piece of a huge, five year farm program that costs nearly a trillion dollars and includes everything from crop insurance to food stamps.

The bill has been stalled in the senate for some time. Given the rules there, it needs 60 out of 100 votes to move forward.… More

Last chance challenge to FCC pole attachment rules

3 June 2013 by Steve Blum
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Crowding in on a deal.

The U.S. Supreme Court might have the final say over whether incumbent telcos get the same pole attachment price breaks as cable and new telecoms companies. The base FCC-mandated rate is $7 per attachment per year, assuming it only takes up one foot of vertical space on a pole.

In 2011, the FCC extended that rate to all. It was originally thought to apply only to new entrants into the telecoms business, including cable companies.… More

The ABCs of Google Fiber is anywhere but California

31 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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This isn’t Kansas.

California is not on the Google Fiber roadmap right now, says Milo Medin, the man running the project. He was speaking at a Fiber to the Home Council meeting in Kansas City this week. According to a CNET story reported by Marguerite Reardon…

[Medin] said that Google would love to bring fiber and 1Gbps broadband speeds to its employees and other Californians. But he said that in general California has many challenges that would make it too costly to build a fiber network there.

… More

California legislature votes more perks for cable and telephone companies

30 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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It’s on the house. Both houses, actually.

The California Assembly approved using broadband construction subsidy funds to pay for marketing programs and infrastructure in public housing yesterday. The votes was 58 yes and 17 no for assembly bill 1299, which means it heads over to the Senate for further consideration later this summer.

AB1299 earmarks $20 million from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) for building out broadband infrastructure in public housing projects and another $5 million for programs designed to encourage residents to buy service.… More

Sharp limits on broadband subsidies approved by California Senate

29 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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I think I’ll send you over the Assembly for a little trim.

No more money for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) and tight restrictions on how any remaining funds can be spent. That was the decision yesterday of a large, bipartisan majority of California state senators, as they approved a broadband infrastructure bill largely written by cable and telco lobbyists.

In a 36 to 1 vote, they sent senate bill 740 to the assembly for consideration later this summer.… More

Votes on California broadband subsidy changes set for Tuesday

27 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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Providing meaningful input to the process.

Two proposals to change the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) are on the table in Sacramento, and both are scheduled for major votes on Tuesday. Assembly bill 1299 and senate bill 740 will be put before the full California Assembly and Senate, respectively, after legislative leaders – primarily super-majority Democrats – released both for a vote. The alternative would have been to kill them outright, which was the fate of many other bills in progress.… More

No Google deed goes unpunished

26 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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When you’re hot, you’re hot.

Google is under pressure to upgrade the free WiFi system it installed in its hometown of Mountain View, California in 2006. Complaints in online forums have been accumulating, and The Mountain View Voice reports improvements are in the pipeline.

At least part of the problem is online video streaming. The Tropos mesh WiFi network equipment was state-of-the-art seven years ago, but bandwidth needs were quite a bit lower then. There’s a certain amount of irony in the fact that one of the Internet’s biggest bandwidth hogs is Google’s YouTube service, but it’s not like anyone is being ripped off.… More

Supreme court approves FCC "shot clock" limits on local review of wireless facilities

22 May 2013 by Steve Blum
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Cities have to shoot, but that doesn’t mean wireless companies will score.

Another barrier to construction of wireless broadband facilities has come down. Or, depending on your point of view, the federal government has pre-empted a bit more of local government’s ability to regulate what’s built or not in a community.

The U.S. supreme court has given its blessing to the FCC’s “shot clock” rule that put limits on the amount of time a local agency has to approve or deny an application to build a tower or put new equipment on or around an existing one.… More