Month: April 2014

CPUC connects Salinas Valley to Silicon Valley with fast, cheap fiber

A 91-mile fiber optic middle network for the Salinas Valley, stretching from Santa Cruz in the north, to Watsonville, Moss Landing, Castroville, Salinas, Gonzales and Soledad in the south, is on the way. On a unanimous vote this morning, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a $10.6 million grant to Sunesys, LLC from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).

“The key point for me was that typically that these projects only make a price commitment for two years”, said Commissioner Michel Florio.… More

Ponderosa takes trimmed broadband grant in the Sierra

9 April 2014 by Steve Blum
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While offering a token defence of its original request, the Ponderosa Telephone Company has effectively agreed to chop $373,000 from a $1 million proposal to build fiber middle mile connections and upgrade DSL service in the Sierra Nevada near Cressman in Fresno County. The company asked for a grant from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) for the project, but ran into opposition at the California Public Utilities Commission.

Commissioner Michel Florio put an alternative on the table, that would remove 5 homes – at a cost to CASF of $75,000 each – from the project and ask Ponderosa to come back with a more cost effective plan to serve them and their neighbors.… More

LA asks for gigabit fiber and free service, but keeps its crown jewel off the table


Just the facts. Assets, not so much.

The City of Los Angeles has taken the next step in its quest to have gigabit class fiber optic service available to every home and business. An official request for information (RFI) has been released for the Los Angeles Community Broadband Network (LACBN), with a 30 June 2014 deadline for responses. It’s only a preliminary step towards formally requesting proposals for the project. It’s also optional – not responding won’t keep anyone out of the running when the time comes.… More

Trimmed Salinas Valley broadband project heads back to CPUC


Building jobs and a better economy.

A 91-mile fiber optic middle mile network reaching from Santa Cruz deep into the Salinas Valley is back on track, after discussions between the California Public Utilities Commission and Sunesys, LLC – the company applying for the project – led to a $388,000 cut in proposed grant funding.

A revised draft resolution, offered as an alternative by CPUC president Michael Peevey, was posted this afternoon and is scheduled to be considered by commissioners on Thursday.… More

Opposition to Comcast-Time Warner deal yet to spark a rally

7 April 2014 by Steve Blum
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Get ready for a juicy pitch.

The Comcast-Time Warner merger game officially opens on Wednesday when the U.S. senate’s judiciary committee holds a hearing for no immediate purpose except to talk about it. Judging by a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer by Bob Fernandez, the debate will quickly drop into the snooze zone of economic jargon…

The hearing likely will be a forum for a word most people – cable customers or not – will find unfamiliar: monopsony.

… More

AT&T wants Google's deal in San Antonio, but not for anything in particular

6 April 2014 by Steve Blum
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Oh, all right. You can have a press release too.

AT&T is about to get the same lease terms in San Antonio that Google got. On Thursday, the city council will look at a draft agreement that would give AT&T almost exactly the same access to city property to install fiber huts that it offered Google last month.
If you lay the Google fiber hut site master lease and the draft of the AT&T version alongside each other, they match word for word, except for the rental rates charged and a couple other minor details.… More

Microsoft CEO chooses long chase over head on attack

Winning depends on the pitch staying playable.

The launch of Microsoft Office apps – Excel, Word, Powerpoint – for the iPad has been hailed by some as a turning point for the company and a bold leadership stroke by new CEO Satya Nadella. If anything, the excitement is a fair measure of Microsoft’s problem: the best it can do is port thirty year old software to the market leader’s tablet.
Ironically, Excel and Powerpoint were originally developed for the Mac OS.… More

To nimby or not to nimby is the dilemma for Seattle and Portland broadband upgrades

4 April 2014 by Steve Blum
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Not every emerald city has a wizard to rely on.

Broadband doesn’t arrive by magic. It needs stuff. Like poles and towers and boxes that don’t necessarily match the neighborhood decor. That simple fact is often lost on nimby homeowners who want to be able to watch four channels of Netflix HD movies at once, but don’t want a small, green box planted anywhere nearby.

Seattle and Portland are two cities where it’s difficult, if not impossible, to install telecoms street furniture.… More

Wealthy city discovers Google Fiber has the power to say no, too

Google plays through when Overland Park misses its tee time.

Google Fiber’s take on cherry picking seems to be to leave rich but stroppy communities to the tender mercies of cable and telephone companies, while building where the municipal welcome wagon drives out to meet them. Overland Park, a Kansas City suburb with lots of prosperous people and good paying jobs, appears to have to permanently gone to the back of the fiber construction line – if not out of it completely – because the city council dragged its feet when it came time to sign a contract.… More

California lawmakers vote to raise broadband construction costs

2 April 2014 by Steve Blum
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One more way to stop broadband competition.

It’s becoming likelier that subsidised broadband projects will be more expensive, if not impossible, following a vote by a California assembly committee this afternoon. The labor and employment committee approved assembly bill 2272, which would put projects paid for by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) under the jurisdiction of the state’s prevailing wage law.
That means that union scale pay and work rules would apply to CASF projects, regardless of whether the companies that build and operate the systems are union shops.… More