rural broadband – Page 5 – Steve Blum's Blog

Small payoffs from big cable, telcos buy support from non profits and politicians in Sacramento and D.C.

31 July 2020 by Steve Blum
ab570, casf, charter, rural broadband, sb1130

Petty cash can be as effective in buying political support as megabuck payments to elected officials and political parties. The latest example is unfolding in Washington, D.C., where Charter Communications is asking the Federal Communications Commission for permission to 1. enforce data caps on its customers and 2. start charging video competitors for access to those customers two years before the expiration of conditions imposed when it acquired Time Warner cable systems.

It’s the same story with assembly bill 570, which would lock Californians into slow broadband for a generation while shovelling taxpayer money to Frontier Communications and cable companies for minimal upgrades.… More

Symmetrical 25 Mbps broadband standard back on track in California assembly

30 July 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, public policy, rural broadband, sb1130, sb431

Funding for fast, reliable broadband service for all Californians gets a hearing on Monday in the California assembly. Senate bill 1130 was supposed to heard by the communications and conveyances committee this week, but was delayed by a political turf war between assembly and senate leadership.

SB 1130 pegs symmetrical 25 Mbps download/25 Mbps upload speeds as California’s residential broadband standard. It’s not a promise of full fiber-based service, but it’s close. Light years closer than the ridiculous 6 Mbps down/1 Mbps minimum that California suffers from now, and that a rival measure pushed by cable and telephone companies would bake into law.… More

Telcos, cable delete fiber, add more pork to rival broadband subsidy bill in California legislature

29 July 2020 by Steve Blum
ab570, casf, public policy, rural broadband, sb1130

Frontier Communications grabs a bankruptcy bailout and cable companies get subsidies to reach high income homes in the latest version of assembly bill 570, posted on the California legislature’s website on Monday. It’s big telecom’s alternative to senate bill 1130, which would raise California’s minimum broadband standard to symmetrical 25 Mbps fiber-ish speeds.

AB 570 is authored by assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D – Yolo). Through the end of last year, she collected $83,000 from companies in the communications and electronics sector, including $24,000 from AT&T and $12,000 from Comcast, Charter Communications and other cable companies, according to the FollowTheMoney.org… More

The usual faces aren’t in the usual places, so California legislature stalls broadband bills

28 July 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, public policy, rural broadband, sb1130, sb431

A political pissing match between the California senate and assembly will delay action on a bill that aims to raise California’s broadband standard to symmetrical 25 Mbps download and 25 Mbps upload speeds. Senate bill 1130, authored by Lena Gonzalez (D – Los Angeles) was one of only two bills scheduled to be heard this morning by the assembly’s communications and conveyances committee.

The other is SB 431. Carried by Mike McGuire (D – Sonoma), it would require mobile carriers to install back up generators at their cell sites in high fire threat areas, and maintain service, including “basic internet browsing for emergency notices” during disasters and power outages – purposeful or not.… More

Fast, reliable broadband considered by California lawmakers. AT&T, Comcast, Charter pay millions to say no

27 July 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, emergencyservices, rural broadband, sb1130, sb431

When members of the California assembly’s communications and conveyances committee take their seats tomorrow, they’ll be looking out at – actually or virtually – big telecoms lobbyists that 1. pay millions of dollars for laws they love and 2. hate the two broadband bills that are on the covid-shortened agenda. Senate bill 1130 raises California minimum broadband standard to symmetrical 25 Mbps download/25 Mbps upload speeds, and SB 431 imposes back up power and web browsing requirements on mobile carriers (but not on cable company VoIP or telcos’ ersatz wireless broadband, thanks to those same lobbyists).… More

Bringing 21st century broadband to rural California will change a 20th century business (and subsidy) model

24 July 2020 by Steve Blum
cpuc, monopoly, public policy, rlec, rural broadband

One of the legacies of state and federal 20th century universal telephone service subsidy programs is an ecosystem of small, independent telephone companies, often owned by families that live in the isolated rural communities that they serve. A California Public Utilities Commission decision, proposed by commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves and due for a vote in August, would begin to allow modern competitors into that ecosystem.

These rural local exchange carriers (RLECs) – serve isolated communities and individual customers in often rugged and sparsely populated terrain that AT&T historically avoided.… More

Competition means better broadband for a few rural Californians, CPUC draft says. It should be for everyone

14 July 2020 by Steve Blum
cpuc, monopoly, public policy, rlec, rural broadband

Faster and higher quality broadband service will reach some rural Californians if cable companies and other “competitive local exchange carriers” (CLECs) are allowed to compete against rural telcos for phone customers, according to a proposed decision under consideration by the California Public Utilities Commission. Cable lobbyists and lawyers have been pushing for permission to pluck profitable customers from highly subsidised rural telcos – Small LECs, in the jargon – leaving taxpayers to pay an even higher tab to serve the rest.… More

Frontier’s sins make a longer stay in California bankruptcy purgatory more likely

13 July 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, frontiercommunications, public policy, rural broadband

A lukewarm reply to demands that the California Public Utilities Commission take a hard look at its post-bankruptcy plans makes it a good bet that Frontier Communications won’t get a green light in California until sometime next year. Last month several organisations, including the CPUC’s own public advocates office, protested Frontier’s request for quick and painless permission to hand control of its business in California to a new set of owners. Last week, Frontier responded.

Like the protests, Frontier’s reply runs through the long list of problems that the company has experienced, if not caused, in California.… More

Democrats in D.C. and Sacramento in sync on fast fiber for broadband. So far

9 July 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, public policy, rural broadband, sb1130

If you can’t get high quality broadband service with at least 25 Mbps download and upload speeds, then you’re unserved according to a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill passed on a partisan vote by democrats in the federal house of representatives. $80 billion of that money is set aside for broadband service upgrades, with symmetrical 100 Mbps service considered the minimum acceptable and preference given to subsidised projects that deliver 1 Gbps down and up.

Unlike California, republicans matter in D.C.… More

Consumer service versus taxpayer costs: CPUC considers opening rural telco territory to competition

8 July 2020 by Steve Blum
cpuc, public policy, rlec, rural broadband

Small telephone companies that serve rural Californians will face direct competition from cable operators and other wireline telecoms companies if the California Public Utilities Commission approves a draft decision posted for review on Monday. Authored by commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves, the proposed new rules would allow competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) to provide voice telephone service in territories that are reserved exclusively for heavily subsidised, small local exchange carriers (Small LECs).

Acknowledging that “wireline competition must be allowed in the service territories of the Small LECs as a matter of law”, the draft tries to balance the benefits of competition to consumers with the potential cost to taxpayers if cable companies skim off profitable neighborhoods, leaving Small LECs increasingly dependent on universal service subsidies to serve the rest.… More