December 2014 – Page 4 – Steve Blum's Blog

Drilling down on the digital divide in California's oil towns

3 December 2014 by Steve Blum
bright house, broadband, community networks, public policy, taft, verizon

Western Kern County is oil country. Once you hit the foothills of the central California coast range, agriculture stops and oil production begins. Several small towns along State Route 33 support the industry and its workers. The largest is Taft, with a city limits population of around 9,000 people in about 2,300 households, plus adjacent unincorporated neighborhoods.

By California Public Utilities Commission standards, nearly all of Taft (and Maricopa to the south) has adequate broadband service: the local cable company, Bright House, offers up to 90 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speeds.… More

No opening day CASF gold rush

2 December 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, casf, cpuc, public policy, spiral, viasat

There was no stampede for the newest round of broadband infrastructure grants and loans from the California Advanced Services Fund. No project applications were filed yesterday, the first day of the new season. Or at least, there were no notifications sent out – applicants are supposed to send a project summary to a service list maintained by the CPUC. And yes, I checked my spam folder.

Even so, there are still project proposals totalling $26.2 million in the hopper, left over from the last round, which closed nearly 2 years ago, on 1 February 2013.… More

New round of broadband construction subsidies begins in California

1 December 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, casf, cpuc, public policy

By California Centennials Commission [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Prospectors still look for gold in Sacramento.

The application window is open for grants and loans from the California Advanced Services Fund The new round of funding – there’s something like $160 million available for grants – began today.

The California Public Utilities Commission, which administers CASF, has posted answers to frequently asked questions. The parameters of the program were redefined this year, but in most regards it’s the process as before. One change is that the funding window will stay open until the money runs out, which the CPUC hopes will be sometime in 2015.… More