FCC didn’t succeed in blocking San Francisco’s open access broadband law

27 February 2020 by Steve Blum
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San francisco skyline 625

San Francisco’s open access rules for broadband in multi-tenant buildings is alive and well, according to a local independent Internet service provider. That’s despite the Federal Communications Commission’s determination to preempt the ordinance passed by San Francisco supervisors in 2016. It requires landlords to allow any ISP access to buildings, regardless of whether or not an exclusivity contract is in place.

In an opinion piece published in the San Francisco Examiner, Preston Rhea, the director of engineering for the policy program at broadband provider Monkeybrains, says that tenants and ISPs are still using the ordinance as leverage to pry open building doors…

Monkeybrains’ experience in the months since the FCC’s rulemaking indicates that [the San Francisco broadband access ordinance] is intact and operating as intended.

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FCC’s San Francisco broadband preemption appealed

26 July 2019 by Steve Blum
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San Francisco is taking the Federal Communications Commission to court. Again. On Monday, the City and County of San Francisco filed a challenge to the FCC’s preemption of its broadband access ordinance with the ninth circuit federal appeals court, also based in San Francisco.

The ordinance requires building owners to allow tenants to buy broadband service from the provider of their choice. Providers are able, under the ordinance, to use any available wiring inside the building that’s owned by the landlord to deliver such service.… More

FCC republicans chase San Francisco “bogeyman”

12 July 2019 by Steve Blum
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Bay to breakers

San Francisco’s open access law that allows any Internet service provider to use landlord-owned wiring inside a building to reach tenants might not be so preempted by Wednesday’s Federal Communications Commission decision. And the FCC’s republican majority is acting more like hired gun lawyers advocating for monopoly-model incumbents than the disinterested expert regulators they’re supposed to be.

Jon Brodkin breaks down the back and forth in a good article in Ars Technica. The ruling formally adopted by republican commissions says that San Francisco can’t require one ISP to share wires it’s already using with another ISP.… More

FCC’s preemption of San Francisco broadband ordinance gets slapped by U.S. house of representatives

3 July 2019 by Steve Blum
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John wayne slap

Democrats in the U.S. house of representatives want to block plans to preempt San Francisco’s broadband access ordinance. Last week, the house voted more or less on party lines to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from implementing new rules that would overturn any local regulations that require landlords to give competitive Internet service providers access to wiring inside their buildings.

The language was inserted by California house member Katie Porter (D – Orange) into an appropriations bill.… More

FCC will preempt San Francisco apartment broadband access ordinance, and that’s just for starters

20 June 2019 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to preempt part of a San Francisco ordinance that requires landlords to open up access to existing wiring within a building, and allows any Internet service provider to use it to deliver service to tenants. In a draft ruling released yesterday, the FCC proposes to block any requirement that forces a landlord to share wiring it owns that’s already in use. It would apply to both residential buildings, such as apartments or condos, and office buildings – “multiple tenant environments” (MTEs), as the FCC puts it.… More

Google Fiber picks MDU cherries in Orange County

12 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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Google Fiber is figuring out how to play small ball and still get thousands of fiber to the home subscribers. In its latest blog post, Google tells how it’s expanding its fiber footprint – actually, making lots of tiny paw prints – in the southern California multi-dwelling unit market…

The Village is the latest apartment community in Orange County with access to our super fast Internet + TV. Additionally, we announced on Thursday that sign ups are now open for residents of The Park at Irvine Spectrum.

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San Francisco broadband law gains independent ISP access to hundreds of buildings

10 September 2017 by Steve Blum
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A San Francisco municipal ordinance that gives tenants of multi-unit buildings the right to get broadband service from any qualified provider of their choosing has had a dramatic impact on the market, at least according to CALTEL, a lobbying group for independent telecoms companies in California. In comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission, CALTEL says San Francisco’s ordinance has opened doors for Sonic.net, California’s largest independent ISP…

Sonic now reports that the ordinance has been instrumental in assisting it to gain access to approximately 300 multi-tenant buildings in San Francisco.

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G.fast isn't so gee whiz compared to fiber, Verizon exec says

26 August 2017 by Steve Blum
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G.fast technology, which in theory allows telcos to push gigabit speeds over existing copper wire, isn’t a good substitute for fiber upgrades, according to Verizon’s director of network planning. Vincent O’Byrne, quoted in an article by Sean Buckley in FierceTelecom, said that even in multi-tenant office buildings or apartments, it’s more cost effective to install fiber all the way to the customer, than it is to bring fiber in or near a building and then use G.fast… More

FCC's idea of open access to broadband service might not be so open

12 June 2017 by Steve Blum
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It’s hard to tell where the Federal Communications Commission is going with a new enquiry into open (or not) access rules for broadband, television and telephone service providers in apartments, condos, commercial buildings and other multiple tenant environments. Assuming commissioners vote to begin it – a safe bet – all they’d be doing immediately is asking for comments from anyone with an opinion on the subject. It’s not being done out of idle curiosity, though.… More

Google Fiber goes boringly conventional in Seattle

10 June 2017 by Steve Blum
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At first it tried to disrupt the broadband industry in the U.S. with full scale fiber to the home deployments, but the financial realities of a capital intensive business with a long term return on investment horizon has forced Google Fiber into a traditional small ISP business model. Its latest move – into a high rent Seattle high rise – is a low risk venture. According to a blog post by its Webpass subsidiary

Today, we announced that Webpass is ready to move into the Emerald City, one Ethernet-wired building at a time.

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