wireless

FCC says wireless permits automatically granted if local goverments don't act in 60 days

20 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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If local governments don’t approve certain permit applications for wireless broadband facilities within 60 days, then the FCC says permission is automatically “deemed granted”. That’s one of the new rules limiting how local and state agencies can regulate wireless broadband infrastructure issued by the commission on Friday.

The 60-day time limit affects permit applications for “collocation, removal, or replacement of transmission equipment on an existing wireless tower or base station,” so long as it doesn’t involve a substantial change to the existing structure’s dimensions.… More

DirecTv's installer network is hidden gem in AT&T deal

19 May 2014 by Steve Blum
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AT&T intends to expand its high speed broadband footprint with wireless service, a goal that’ll be much easier to achieve if its acquisition of DirecTv goes through. There’s a lot of talk about the television side of the deal – and rightly so – but wireless broadband is a core element too, according to AT&T’s announcement…

AT&T will use the merger synergies to expand its plans to build and enhance high-speed broadband service to 15 million customer locations, mostly in rural areas where AT&T does not provide high-speed broadband service today, utilizing a combination of technologies including fiber to the premises and fixed wireless local loop capabilities.

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Shasta County wireless broadband proposal goes to CPUC

17 April 2014 by Steve Blum
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Click for a larger version.

A $2.2 million proposal for a wireless broadband and telephone system in the mountains of Shasta County will be going in front of the California Public Utilities Commission next month. Commissioners will be considering a draft resolution released earlier this week that would approve a grant from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to San Diego-based Shasta County Telecom. The plan is to build three new towers that would be positioned to reach about 1,400 homes.… More

I got that completely wrong: satellite is allowed with a lower service hurdle by new Californian subsidy rules

21 January 2014 by Steve Blum
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Satellite gets a boost, actually.

Contrary to what I posted yesterday, satellite-based Internet service providers would be eligible for broadband infrastructure subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) under new eligibility rules proposed earlier this month. In fact, the new language appears to makes it easier for satellite providers to qualify for CASF grants and loans. (H/T to Tom Glegola at CPUC for gently pointing out my error).

The draft decision, authored by commission president Michael Peevey, strikes out language now in effect that specifically includes satellite in the list of eligible technologies.… More

Comprehensive study shows wireless radiation does not affect people


It’s safe to take off the hat now.

There is no scientifically valid evidence that radio waves produced by WiFi or mobile telecoms equipment harm people or make them sick. That’s the conclusion of a systematic review of 29 scientific studies that looked for connections between electromagnetic fields (EMF) and illnesses that people claim are caused by them…

Idiopathic environmental intolerance attributed to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF) is a controversial illness in which people report symptoms that they believe are triggered by exposure to EMF.

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Supreme Court clears way for lower fees, easier access to utility poles

9 October 2013 by Steve Blum
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More competition for the communications zone.

A standard attachment fee of $7 per foot of vertical space and permission for wireless companies to install equipment on utility poles was blessed Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court. It declined to hear an appeal from a broad group of electric utilities that objected to new pole attachment rules adopted by the FCC in 2011.

The electric utilities claimed that the FCC and the lower appeals court that heard the case misinterpreted federal law, with the result…

The FCC’s one-sided regulation of the century-old ‘joint use’ or ‘joint ownership’ relationship will upset well established private contractual relationships to the unfair benefit of ILECs and the enormous detriment of the electric utility industry.

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Muni WiFi still has utility, and at least two utilities


Originally, it was just the poles in Chaska that had a retro look.

The first generation of municipal wireless providers is mostly gone, as fiber takes precedence and mobile networks grow. One of the survivors deserves particular mention: the City of Chaska, Minnesota.

I visited Chaska several times in the course of building and running a similar WiFi-based broadband utility in Lompoc, California. Chaska’s project led ours by a few months and the lessons learned there saved us time, money and a lot of trouble.… More

An invisible hand for wireless broadband

6 June 2013 by Steve Blum
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What we have here is a failure to communicate.

Shortages are often – some would say always – the result of a market failure. Supply and demand are functions of both the physical availability of a good or service and the price deemed acceptable by both parties in the transaction. If the balancing mechanisms don’t exist, suppliers are left with unsold inventory and buyers do without.

Wireless bandwidth is a classic example. Who hasn’t tried to connect a smart phone and found no mobile carrier signal and only locked down WiFi?… 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