Month: December 2014

Pressure to spend CASF money will grow in 2015

31 December 2014 by Steve Blum
, , ,

The new round of grant and loan proposals for the California Advanced Services Fund is remarkably different from the 2013 batch. Back then, 32 proposals were dumped on the CPUC all at once, ready or not. This time around, the application window will stay open until the money is gone, which means applicants can prioritise quality over deadline driven speed. And, it is hoped, the review process won’t be as clogged or as fraught – if an application is rejected now, it can be fixed and resubmitted.… More

Hard broadband choices for new CPUC president

30 December 2014 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Utility policy and the way it’s implemented, including the possibility of a more activist form of broadband regulation, will be significantly different at the California Public Utilities Commission in 2015. The two most powerful jobs – president and executive director – will be held by new people in the coming year.

In 11 months, Michael Picker moved from a job as an energy advisor to Governor Jerry Brown to a seat on the commission to the top job as president, assuming the California senate agrees.… More

Low USDA broadband grant standards dig a deeper digital divide

29 December 2014 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Rural broadband projects have another shot at getting funding from the U.S. department of agriculture. The rural utilities service (RUS) has opened another grant application window for its Community Connect program (h/t to Tom Glegola at CPUC for the heads up).

The key eligibility parameters are…

  • The project must be in an area “where Broadband Service does not currently exist”. That’s defined as a combined – down plus up – speed of 3 Mbps. For example, if there’s service available at 1.5 Mbps up and 1.5 Mbps down, fixed or mobile, then the area isn’t eligible for a grant.
… More

There's a point to fast broadband, even when it goes nowhere

28 December 2014 by Steve Blum
, ,

Isolated communities – particularly Indian tribes – are experimenting with microgrids that distribute locally generated, renewable electricity to a small number of homes (h/t to Pat Kennedy for the pointer). Can the same logic be applied to community broadband networks in rural areas? Not really, but thinking it through leads to some interesting ideas.

The difference between electricity and broadband is that broadband is necessarily networked and electricity is not. But local storage can substitute for long-haul bandwidth, up to a point – the Tivo model.… More

Spend broadband subsidies on state of the art service, CPUC report says

27 December 2014 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

Don’t subsidise old, slow broadband technology. That’s one of the conclusions of an analysis of mobile broadband performance done for the California Public Utilities Commission (H/T to Jim Warner for the pointer).

Right now, the CPUC’s minimum service availability mark is 6 Mbps down and 1.5 Mbps up – if a community gets less than that, it’s eligible for broadband infrastructure subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund. Conversely though, to get those subsidies, broadband projects only have to meet that level of service – the minimum is good enough.… More

No Google Fiber in Christmas stockings for hopeful cities

26 December 2014 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

Naughty or nice? Google won’t say.

The 34 communities across the U.S. that were hoping Google would come down the chimney yesterday and leave a fiber-to-the-home project under the tree will have to wait to find out if they made it onto the nice list. Back in February, Google said it would pick the winners by the end of the year, but it’s told prospective communities it’s going to take a little longer than they thought.… More

Perfect security is beyond the realm of science fiction

25 December 2014 by Steve Blum
, ,

The cracks keep getting bigger.

Around this time last year, we were worried about credit and debit card details being stolen from Target stores. Bad, but not bad enough it would seem to drive retailers into doing a thorough security overhaul. The past year has seen similar breaches at Home Depot — even bigger than Target — Staples and Bebe, to name just 3.

Wouldn’t it be nice if that were the worst of it? But no such luck.… More

Happy holidays, again!

24 December 2014 by Steve Blum

Here’s to another year!

A huge thank you to everyone who has clicked, complained, complimented or commented on this blog over the past year. I’ve enjoyed all the interactions and suggestions received. As I wrote last Christmas, the true reward for a writer is to be read, and this has been a rewarding year indeed.

It’s been two years of daily blogging, at least one post a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.… More

Governor Brown promotes Michael Picker to CPUC president

23 December 2014 by Steve Blum
, ,

Michael Picker moves up.

Michael Picker is the new president of the California Public Utilities Commission, assuming the California senate endorses the promotion announced this afternoon by governor Jerry Brown.

Picker first took a seat on the commission in February. He was working for Brown as an energy policy aide and chosen to fill the position left vacant when Mark Ferron resigned for health reasons. With a background in the environmental arena, he’s worked for the mayor of Sacramento, in the state treasurer’s office and as a political consultant.… More

CPUC considers eventual convergence of rural broadband and phone

23 December 2014 by Steve Blum
, , , ,


Telecommunications service and infrastructure is subsidised in a couple of different ways in rural California. The California Advanced Services Fund pays the lion’s share of the cost of building broadband infrastructure in under and unserved areas, and the California High Cost Fund supports telephone service as well as infrastructure. The latter is divided between rural areas served by bigger incumbents, like AT&T, Verizon and Frontier, and those served by small rural companies, like Pinnacles Telephone or Ponderosa.… More