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Wireless lobbyists will keep swinging in the California legislature 17 October 2017 -

By Fcb981 (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Senate bill 649 is dead, following a late night veto by California governor Jerry Brown. In his veto message, he was sympathetic to the needs of mobile carriers and other wireless providers, but called for a better balance with the interests local governments have in managing the public right of way.

Translation: try again next year, with something that’s not quite so one-sided.

It’s a sure bet that wireless carriers and their lobbying fronts will be ... continue reading »

Brown approves $300 million gift to telcos but vetoes streetlight giveaway 16 October 2017 -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=082KfTzWOxE

Nobody says it like Linda.

Just before the clock hit midnight last night, California governor Jerry Brown signed assembly bill 1665 into law, but vetoed senate bill 649.

AB 1665 takes effect immediately. It lowers California minimum broadband service standard to 6 Mbps download/1 Mbps upload speeds and adds $300 million to the California Advanced Services Fund for broadband infrastructure, to be spent under rules will give it to AT&T and Frontier in exchange for token upgrades. That they ... continue reading »

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