public policy

Effort to shed more light on the CPUC moves into the dark

6 July 2016 by Steve Blum
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Nightfall.

The dust has settled in Sacramento and lawmakers are out of town on their regular summer break. But the details of changes proposed for telecommunications policy are still hazy.

The legislative package that will determine how telecoms companies and services, and other utilities, are regulated (or not) in California is still largely unwritten. That’s the plan agreed with the governor to change the way the California Public Utilities Commission does business. At this point, it looks like it will comprise five bills, although as the process grinds through that number could shift up or down:

  • Senate bill 215, by Mark Leno (D – San Francisco), would tighten restrictions on private conversations and other ex parte communications between CPUC commissioners and interested parties while some proceedings are under way.
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Competitive ISPs need access to conduit, but it has be there in the first place

4 July 2016 by Steve Blum
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The need for open trench notification policies is particularly acute when a local agency restricts future cuts into a given street, after the completion of a trenching or repaving project. But the need to rapidly respond to changes in the broadband industry and market conditions means that a new, or newly expanding, competitive Internet service provider is a disadvantage if, say, a five year moratorium was put into effect on a particular street three years ago, before the company was even founded.… More

If carmakers haven't figured out wireless in 20 years, they never will

3 July 2016 by Steve Blum
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More unlicensed spectrum for WiFi and other uses will add value to the U.S. economy. That’s the argument FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is making to congress as a matter of general policy and to colleagues as opportunities to reallocate frequency assignments are evaluated.

One immediate thing the Federal Communications Commission can do – and democrat Rosenworcel as well as republicans Michael O’Rielly and Ajit Pai want to do – is to shift 75 MHz of spectrum around 5.9 GHz (5.850 GHz to 5.925 GHz, to be exact) from an unlicensed but otherwise restricted short range, transportation-related allocation to general use.… More

CPUC reforms bump ahead, but details are still lacking

30 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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The assembly utilities and commerce committee has approved two senate bills – SB 215 and SB 512 – that are key elements of a proposed package of California Public Utilities Commission reforms, although the details are yet to be worked out. One of the standard practices of the California legislature is for amendments to bills to be worked out behind closed doors after committee members vote to approve them. And that was the explicit understanding yesterday, which was agreed on largely party line votes – democrats tending to favor, republicans not.… More

CPUC reform proposal increases transparency and avoids drag

29 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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The long list of reforms planned for the California Public Utilities Commission by governor Jerry Brown and a trio of lawmakers will make proceedings more transparent and open to public participation, and appears to moderate some of the procedural sand that current proposals would throw into the gears. Well meaning sand, but sand nonetheless.

The package announced on Monday rolls in bills that Bay Area senators Jerry Hill and Mark Leno have already put on the table.… More

Confirmed: bill to scrap CPUC is scrapped instead

28 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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The puzzle pieces are starting to move, as a plan announced yesterday to reorganise utility regulation in California takes shape. Assembly constitutional amendment 11 was taken off the senate’s energy, utilities and communications committee’s agenda yesterday, and a second hearing, by the senate’s elections and constitutional amendments committee, was cancelled this morning.

ACA 11 would have put a constitutional amendment on the November ballot, asking voters whether they want to end the special, and largely independent, status granted to the California Public Utilities Commission.… More

Governor, legislators agree on sweeping CPUC reform package

28 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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A plan for a major overhaul of the California Public Utilities Commission was announced yesterday by governor Jerry Brown and three legislators – Bay Area senators Mark Leno and Jerry Hill, and LA assemblyman Mike Gatto – who have been pushing for significant changes, even to the point of getting rid of it altogether (h/t to Regina Costa at TURN for the heads up).

The first item on the long list is to get the CPUC out of the business of policing some transportation services, most notably ride sharing companies like Uber and Lyft, but also certain bus companies and other land and water conveyances.… More

LA assemblyman steps up to bat for big telecom

27 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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You’d think he’d be a Dodger fan.

Los Angeles assemblyman Mike Gatto is doubling down on his role as the California legislature’s key player on telecoms policy this season, and he appears to have decided he’s playing on the telephone and cable company team.

As chair of the assembly’s utilities and commerce committee, Gatto blocked a proposal to put more state money into broadband infrastructure – opposed by incumbents because it also empowers competitors – and greased the skids for an AT&T-written bill that would have allowed rural and inner city copper-line networks to be replaced by wireless service.… More

WiFi is worth more to the economy than congress thinks, FCC commission says

25 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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What’s the value of free? That’s the question that FCC commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is asking as she pushes for more WiFi – i.e. unlicensed and available to everyone at no cost – spectrum to be allocated. The core problem, as she sees it, is that congressional analysts don’t understand what freely available spectrum is worth to the U.S. economy…

Traditionally, the legislative process has overlooked the value of the unlicensed spectrum and favored licensed spectrum.

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California conduit battle continues as AT&T dances around the question

24 June 2016 by Steve Blum
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Webpass’ fight with AT&T over access to conduit continues. That’s the word from a Kind Reader of this humble blog who seems to be in a position to know. Yesterday’s post about the complaint Webpass has filed with the California Public Utilities Commission about AT&T’s conduit access practices was behind events on a couple of points. I didn’t know the outcome of last week’s hearing or the fact that Google Fiber bought Webpass on Wednesday.… More