Month: September 2014

Setting the Vegas stage for a declaration of net neutrality victory

11 September 2014 by Steve Blum
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“Our goal in this proceeding is to establish the rules of the road for Internet openness that will provide certainty in the marketplace”, FCC chair Tom Wheeler told his former clients at the CTIA wireless show in Las Vegas on Tuesday. He was talking about network neutrality rules that he drafted and hundreds of thousands of people and organisations are commenting on now. Rules that set up a process for governing the Internet that will be anything but open and certain.… More

Microsoft won't win consumer hearts by appealing to IT minds

10 September 2014 by Steve Blum
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Suit, check. Hair cut, check. Mojo, oops.

You have to give Microsoft credit for trying. It was a distant third (or fourth or fifth or worse, depending on how you count) in the mobile operating system and smart phone races coming into the CTIA trade show in Las Vegas. No matter what happened, it wouldn’t narrow the gap significantly leaving it.

But if it ever wants to matter in the mobile world it has to start changing perceptions, and CTIA is a good place to begin.… More

Transparent auction rules and a clear business proposition needed to get more mobile broadband spectrum says FCC commissioner

9 September 2014 by Steve Blum
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Finding new radio bandwidth for mobile broadband services and then figuring out how to pry it out of the hands of businesses and government agencies that don’t use it particularly well is a perpetual challenge for the FCC. Four commissioners – the whole bunch except for chair Tom Wheeler – took questions from CTIA president Meredith Baker at the CTIA show in Las Vegas this afternoon. Not surprisingly, given the venue, much of the hour-long session focused on moving twentieth century technologies and analog users off of spectrum, particularly in the coveted 600 MHz bands, to make way for twenty-first century digital services.… More

CTIA leans in to the Apple punch

9 September 2014 by Steve Blum
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All eyes were on Cupertino this morning, even – or maybe particularly – eyes that had flown to Las Vegas with the intent of being briefly at the center of the mobile telecommunications universe. So CTIA made the smart move, and built its opening keynote session around Apple’s iPhone 6 and Apple Watch announcements this morning.

New CTIA president Meredith Attwell Baker made her rookie appearance, earnest enough but lacking the easy stage presence of her predecessors in the job, like FCC chair Tom Wheeler, who was next up on the stage.… More

FCC chair Wheeler confuses market competition with Beltway negotiation

9 September 2014 by Steve Blum
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America’s telecommunications lobbyist-in-chief showed up at the CTIA show this morning, full of sunny remarks and gentle chiding for the wireless industry. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, who used to hold the top job at CTIA, was clearly coming home.

“It was ten years ago, ten years ago, that I last stood on this stage,” he said. He recalled that when he was up for confirmation of his current assignment, he told U.S. senators he hoped he was a pretty good representative of the mobile telecoms industry.… More

Las Vegas mobile show struggles for the spotlight

8 September 2014 by Steve Blum
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The rebooted CTIA mobile telecoms show is ramping up in Las Vegas today. It officially opens tomorrow, but pre-show activities and associated meetings – particularly the Competitive Carriers Association – are already underway.

This new version of the show is, among other things, a combination of the big, technology and business-focused CTIA springtime convention and its fall MobileCon conference, which was more about applications and services. But the market is crowded and both shows were faced with declining attendance.… More

If you don't like the way your cable company does business in California, speak up now

7 September 2014 by Steve Blum
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If local governments, advocacy groups and ordinary citizens want to challenge a cable or telephone company’s right to offer video services under statewide authority granted by the California Public Utilities Commission it can be done, but not while a company is trying to renew its franchise.

That was message from several commissioners – Carla Peterman, Mike Florio and Catherine Sandoval – as they reluctantly voted on 28 August 2014 to approval a video franchise renewal process that all but shuts out any opportunity for public scrutiny or challenge.… More

Comcast applauds FCC chair's talk of broadband competition but pimps for less

6 September 2014 by Steve Blum
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FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler laid out his vision for the future of broadband. We applaud his focus on the importance of broadband competition to benefit all Americans.

So says Comcast’s chief lobbyist David Cohen in a blog post yesterday. He goes on at length about how Comcast is a living example of everything Wheeler said about the wonders of a competitive broadband market in a speech the day before.

And Cohen is right. Wheeler’s vision is also Comcast’s vision: a broadband market managed in Washington by people like Wheeler and Cohen who rotate jobs between government posts and giant incumbent companies, pretending to be acting for the greater good of all.… More

FCC chair talks broadband hardball but keeps tossing slowpitch

5 September 2014 by Steve Blum
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Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the FCC, gave a ringing speech yesterday at a Washington incubator, calling for more broadband competition, decrying the poor choice and service across huge swaths of the U.S., plugging municipal broadband and admitting that mobile service is no substitute for wireline networks, particularly fiber.

All good things. All wonderful words. The question, though, is whether he’ll follow through or if he’ll use pro-competition rhetoric to lay down a smoke screen for incumbent-friendly policies.… More

CPUC to FCC: Comcast's proposed mega-merger poses particular problems for California

4 September 2014 by Steve Blum
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California knows fit characters.

The California Public Utilities Commission is urging the FCC to consider Comcast’s “character and fitness to hold FCC licenses or authorizations”, particularly in light of an ongoing enquiry into its admitted publication of confidential subscriber information. That’s one of the highlights of comments the CPUC filed with the FCC regarding its review of the proposed merger of Comcast and Time-Warner. (H/T to UCSC’s Jim Warner for the heads up – I was slacking off in the Sierra when this went down.… More