verizon

Verizon offers yet another reason to be glad we're in California

7 July 2015 by Steve Blum
, ,


Watch out, come harvest season.

The usual suspects are viewing Frontier Communication’s purchase of Verizon’s wireline business in California with alarm, but maybe we should be counting our blessings. Out east, Verizon’s deployment of fiber to the home service seems to be falling short of the benchmarks it promised New York City it would meet.

According to a story in TechDirt (h/t to the Baller-Herbst list for the pointer), Verizon deployed its FiOS plant to about half the homes promised, and not the half that really needed the upgrade.… More

Frontier picks up a federal funding option but might miss even more in California

17 June 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,


Frontier has claimed the blue and brown areas, but Verizon could leave the yellow areas behind. Click for a closer look.

Frontier Communications is the first of the larger U.S. telephone companies to take up the Federal Communications Commission’s offer of several years of subsidies in exchange for upgrading broadband infrastructure in rural areas to a minimum service level of 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds.

The FCC announced yesterday that Frontier had said yes to its right of first refusal on money from the second phase of the Connect America Fund program.… More

No decision yet on investigating the condition of California copper

11 June 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,

A bid by CPUC president Michael Picker to stop an investigation into the state of AT&T’s and Verizon’s copper networks in California is on hold until late next month. The California Public Utilities Commission was due to vote on whether to cancel that network study this morning, but commissioner Catherine Sandoval asked that it be delayed until 23 July 2015. She’s the second commissioner to ask for more time to consider it – Mike Florio was the first – and she’s the one heading up a series of public meetings aimed at finding out what’s going on with Verizon’s network, as part of the CPUC’s review of Frontier Communications’ purchase of those wireline systems.

Verizon won't sell all in California, appears to be clinging to juciest bits of its wireline networks


Clinging to California.

Competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) are companies that lease wholesale facilities from incumbents – typically lines from a central office to subscriber locations – and add their own elements, often backhaul, upgraded DSL equipment and voice services. That means that the quality and price of the service CLECs provide partly depends on the condition of incumbent networks.

The lobbying group that represents CLECs in Sacramento – CalTel – is happy to see Verizon sell its wireline networks to Frontier Communications…

CalTel considers Verizon California to be an often uncooperative and indifferent-at- best wholesale supplier.

… More

Hearings set to investigate Verizon's copper networks, but that's not enough

8 June 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,

But it’s coming over the road, not over the top.

The condition of Verizon’s copper networks will be assessed, at least to an extent, by the California Public Utilities Commission. That’ll happen whether or not commissioners go along with president Michael Picker’s plan to cancel a formal study of wireline service in California. Verizon needs permission to sell its wireline systems to Frontier Communications. To help it reach a decision, the CPUC is holding what looks to be a lot of public hearings all over the state, specifically asking local residents about the state of those networks…

The assets to be transferred include, in addition to the customer accounts, the physical assets of Verizon California such as poles, wires, switches, trucks, central offices and the like…

The workshops will review the technical condition of the network in the areas adjacent to the [public participation hearing] locations in order to inform the parties and Commission about the operational status of the facilities to be migrated from Verizon to Frontier, and what steps may be necessary to satisfy the consumer benefit and public interest tests for approval of such transfers under the Public Utilities Code.

… More

Coalition of the unbelieving tells CPUC to get the facts about Verizon's copper

5 June 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,


Click for more naked network porn.

Frontier Communications’ proposed purchase of Verizon’s wireline networks in California can’t be adequately evaluated without investigating the actual state of those networks. Particularly the rural copper plant that Verizon is allowing to rot on the poles. That’s the gist of an unusual joint plea to the California Public Utilities Commission by the CPUC’s own office of ratepayer advocates (ORA), a group of consumer lobbying groups and the primary telecoms union in the state, the Communications Workers of America.… More

Frontier tells CPUC to stay away from broadband issues


Don’t go there.

Frontier Communications and Verizon are trying to make the same argument that Comcast made, and lost, when it tried to restrict the California Public Utilities Commission’s review of its proposed mega-merger to some very narrow, telephone-centric considerations.

In this case, Frontier wants to buy out Verizon’s wireline systems in California. The CPUC’s office of ratepayer advocates is urging the commission to decide if that’s in the public interest, in part, on whether it’s good or bad for the broadband market here.… More

CPUC delays votes on copper network investigation, Comcast deal

20 May 2015 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

The California Public Utilities Commission won’t, in all likelihood, be voting on either a proposal to stop a study of AT&T and Verizon’s wireline networks or on formally rejecting Comcast’s defunct request to buy Time Warner’s California cable systems and transfer Charter’s to its control. Both of those items were on the CPUC’s hold list this afternoon, and rescheduled for consideration in two weeks, at the 11 June 2015 meeting. Commissioner Mike Florio asked for the delay on the study vote; staff pulled the Comcast decision.… More

Verizon tries to leave California before anyone finds out how bad its network is

19 May 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Vanishing point.

The California Public Utilities Commission doesn’t need facts, it just needs to wave good bye and assume Frontier Communications will pick up the crumbling pieces of Verizon’s copper network. That’s what Verizon is claiming, anyway, in comments filed with the CPUC, endorsing a proposal by commission president Michael Picker to spike a technical evaluation of the condition of Verizon’s and AT&T’s decaying copper networks.

The [advocacy groups supporting a network study] claim that before the Commission can authorize the transfer of Verizon to Frontier, it must know the physical condition of Verizon’s facilities to determine whether Verizon bears responsibility for any “neglect of the network before the transfer is approved.”

… More