palo alto – Steve Blum's Blog

Cable franchise audit finds underpayment, misuse of fees

9 October 2016 by Steve Blum
divca, palo alto, public policy, video

Click for the full story.

California cities and counties don’t have much to say about the service cable companies provide and the prices they charge for it. When the state took control of cable franchises with the 2006 Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act (DIVCA), local governments were largely pushed out of the regulatory picture.

But not completely. Cities can still collect a franchise fee of up to 5% of gross video revenue and another 1% to pay capital equipment costs for public access channels.… More

Nimby laws will keep Google Fiber out of its own backyard

3 June 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, ceqa, ftth, google, google fiber, palo alto, public policy

All Google has accomplished so far by including 5 Silicon Valley cities on its list of 34 candidates for fiber build-outs is to prove that California is a land of opportunity for obstructionists and not for broadband. To build on its home turf, Google Fiber has to accept that state and local laws allow anyone with an objection – no matter how trivial – to snarl and delay construction for months or even years.

The clearest warning comes in Palo Alto’s response to the Google Fiber City Checklist.… More

Municipal broadband is an economic choice, not a holy crusade

15 July 2013 by Steve Blum
broadband, community networks, ftth, fttp, palo alto

The debate continues.

I’ve been taken to task for an article I wrote on the prospects for fiber-to-the-premise service in Palo Alto. It was just published in Broadband Communities, and was based on a study I did last year for the City of Palo Alto evaluating a particular business model.

Christopher Mitchell, the proprietor of MuniNetworks.org and an advocate of public ownership of telecoms networks, called it odd and misleading in a blog post.… More

FTTH price sensitivity looking similar in Britain and California

1 May 2013 by Steve Blum
broadband, bt, business, ftth, palo alto

But not at any price, luv.

Last month, British Telecom rolled out a fiber-to-the-home offering that relied on just over half of its users paying somewhere in the $1,000 to $2,300 range for installation, and the rest paying more. Now PC Pro, a UK-based newsletter, reports that BT is backing away from its previous goal of getting FTTH into 25% of its subscriber’s homes.

The report quotes a BT source as linking the pull back to success with its fiber-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) offerings, which are already touted as being in the 40 to 80 Mbps range and could soon go as high as 100 Mbps.… More

British Telecom rolling out user-financed FTTH service

8 April 2013 by Steve Blum
broadband, bt, business model, community networks, ftth, palo alto, public policy

Brits surf different too.

The cost of directly connecting a home to British Telecom’s fiber network will be in the thousands of dollars range. BT has released details on the formula it will use to calculate the charge for running fiber from a neighborhood node – fiber to the cabinet in BT’s terminology – to a home or business.

The minimum charge is £700, about $1,075 at today’s exchange rate. BT says that 55% of its customers can fiber up for somewhere between £700 and £1,500 (about $2,300).… More

Bay Area cities offer FCC chair a glimpse of the future

27 February 2013 by Steve Blum
alameda, benicia, broadband, casf, community networks, cpuc, ebbc, fcc, genachowski, Oakland, palo alto, public policy, regional consortia, san leandro

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski sees a gigabit city in San Leandro.

Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) visited San Leandro today, taking a look at the economic progress kindled by the Lit San Leandro project and delivering a keynote speech to local leaders, business people, city staff and proud residents. I’ll have more on his remarks later.

I was fortunate enough to be invited as one of the opening speakers. My assignment was to give some background on efforts in the Bay Area and around California to develop our economy by developing broadband infrastructure:

Here in the Bay Area, we are surrounded by the fattest Internet pipes on the planet.

… More

Metro broadband: without the political cards, you're not playing with a full deck

27 December 2012 by Steve Blum
business, business model, capital cost, casf, dark fiber, demand, fiber market study, ftth, fttp, funding, lit san leandro, municipal broadband, palo alto, private capital, public policy, public private partnership, seattle

Political value: the need for speed at the San Leandro public library.

There’s an argument to the effect that the prices charged for broadband service by telcos and cable companies in urban areas are higher than necessary to provide that service and make a reasonable profit.

It’s not crazy talk. You can make a case that more densely populated areas have lower per household costs – opex and capex – and that more affluent areas have higher profit margins.… More

Seattle passes the fiber (50 mega) buck

14 December 2012 by Steve Blum
business, business model, capital cost, dark fiber, demand, feasibility study, fiber market study, ftth, fttp, funding, gigabit squared, municipal broadband, palo alto, private capital, public private partnership, seattle

The unveiling of Gigabit Seattle yesterday is just the first step on a long road to building a fiber to the premises (FTTP) service for residents. The City of Seattle and the University of Washington have endorsed a plan by a consulting firm – Gigabit Squared – to “begin raising the capital needed” for a demonstration project.

It’s not small change. The 200 miles of fiber needed to reach 50,000 homes and businesses in 12 neighborhoods will cost something like $50 million to install and light up.… More

User-financed FTTP fails in a competitive market

7 June 2012 by Steve Blum
broadband, business, community networks, dark fiber, feasibilty study, fiber market study, finance, ftth, fttp, municipal broadband, palo alto, telecommunications, telecoms

A user-financed, municipal fiber-to-the-premises broadband system would be a financial nightmare if launched into a market with mainstream competition, even if it’s subsidized and supported by a profitable city-owned utility.

That’s the finding of a study presented to the City of Palo Alto’s Utility Advisory Commission last night by Tellus Venture Associates. The report assessed the financial potential of user-financed municipal FTTP options, including upfront payments ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, substantial capital contributions by the City and ongoing subsidies of up to $2,000,000 per year.… More

San Leandro joins elite group of dark fiber cities

14 February 2012 by Steve Blum
broadband, business, commercial real estate, community networks, dark fiber, east bay broadband consortium, ebbc, economic development, fiber market study, finance, lit san leandro, palo alto, san leandro

Source: Lit San Leandro

Lit San Leandro is putting fiber in the ground. A launch party attracted about a hundred out-of-town development prospects and local business people who heard about the project’s big picture benefits and the specific real estate opportunities it creates. The Hayward Daily Review and San Leandro Patch have good articles on the event. Patrick Kennedy’s Lit San Leandro blog also has good updates and pictures.

Speakers at the event included Sean Tario, the CEO of Open Spectrum Inc.

… More