Frontier's California takeover is on track for approval today

3 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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Not a Californian look, but hey, it beats Verizon’s finger.

No glitches for Frontier’s purchase of Verizon’s wireline phone systems in California. At this point the deal appears headed for approval without discussion: it’s on the California Public Utilities Commission’s consent agenda for today’s meeting and no one has asked that it be bumped to later, or taken off the consent agenda and taken up as a discussion item. The CPUC is the last major hurdle for the deal.… More

No showstoppers for Frontier's purchase of Verizon's wireline network in California

2 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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But Verizon will have to clean up its mess first.

Frontier Communications’ proposed purchase of Verizon’s wireline telephone systems in California seems to be on track for approval by the California Public Utilities Commission, albeit with conditions. The draft decision approving the deal, written by CPUC administrative law judge Karl Bemesderfer, has gone through the standard public review cycle of comments and reply comments from the companies involved and other interested parties, particularly the CPUC’s office of ratepayer advocates (ORA) and various consumer and advocacy groups.… More

CPUC considers open access to poles for mobile carriers

1 December 2015 by Steve Blum
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Mobile carriers use a lot of feet on poles, telephone and cable companies use a lot of poles.

Mobile carriers will get more or less the same access to utility poles as currently enjoyed by telephone and cable companies, if the California Public Utilities Commission approves a draft decision that’s scheduled to be on the table at its meeting on Thursday.

That would clear the way for the installation of small cellular access points on utility poles, making it easier for mobile carriers to greatly increase the coverage density of their networks, even down to the several-cells-per-city-block level that’s envisioned for 5G networks over the next five to ten years.… More

FCC eliminates a distinction between telecoms and cable companies

29 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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If you want to build your own broadband network, you need to have access to utility pole routes along the way – not only is it cheaper than installing your own, as a practical matter you’re unlikely, to say the least, to get permission to plant a second row of poles.

Nationally, the rates for pole attachments are set by the Federal Communications Commission. Last week, the FCC lowered the price for telecoms companies to the same rate paid by cable operators.… More

New effort to require broadband conduit in federal highways

25 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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It’s easier to dig first, pave second.

Silicon Valley congresswoman Anna Eshoo is taking a third try at baking dig once requirements into federally funded transportation projects. She’s introduced a bill in the house of representatives that would require states to evaluate the need for broadband conduit as part of planning road projects…

If the evaluation reveals an anticipated need in the next 15 years for broadband conduit beneath hard surfaces to be constructed by the project, the conduit shall be installed under the hard surfaces as part of the covered highway construction project…

The Secretary shall ensure with respect to a covered highway construction project that an appropriate number of broadband conduits as determined by the Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, are installed along such highway to accommodate multiple broadband providers, with consideration given to the availability of existing conduits…

The Secretary shall ensure that any requesting broadband provider has access to each broadband conduit installed pursuant to this section, on a competitively neutral and nondiscriminatory basis, for a charge not to exceed a cost-based rate.

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Broadband subsidies collide in the California desert

23 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Up, down, who cares? This is as fast as I go.

The 3,800 homes in the Anza area of Riverside County are a big step closer to getting fiber to the home broadband service from the local electric cooperative. The California Public Utilities Commission published a draft decision on Friday giving the Anza Electric Cooperative a $2.7 million grant from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to pay for 60% of the project.

The project is remarkable for two reasons.… More

Intelligent management of broadband subsidies works

18 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Each taking care of its own.

I had the opportunity to speak at the California Broadband Workshop in Mountain View yesterday, organised by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Here are the remarks I prepared, which greatly resemble the remarks I delivered…

Good morning. I’d like to make three points.

First, public subsidies provide the greatest benefit to the greatest number when used to leverage private capital and steer it toward public policy goals. Publicly owned assets are a powerful tool for encouraging competitive builds and keeping public policy goals front and center.… More

Rural areas get biggest benefit from higher Californian broadband standard

17 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Another try at raising California’s minimum broadband standard to 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up, from the current 6 Mbps down/1.5 Mbps up level, is gathering momentum in Sacramento. Introduced earlier this year by Santa Cruz assemblyman Mark Stone, assembly bill 238 would have raised the bar both for eligibility requirements for California Advanced Service Fund (CASF) subsidies, and for the infrastructure that’s built using that money. It’s stalled now, due to unexpected opposition from rural interests as well as the usual suspects.… More

Los Angeles starts softening up the ground for 5G

15 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Give it a couple of days and you’ll forget that it’s even there.

If you want to see what a 5G mobile broadband world will look like, check out the Gizmodo article about the new combo street light/cell site equipment that’s being planted in Los Angeles. For now, the poles support 4G service – because nobody will know exactly what 5G is for a few years – and will be installed at the rate of about 100 a year for the next five years.… More

CPUC approval of Frontier-Verizon deal dodges broadband jurisdiction

11 November 2015 by Steve Blum
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Many Californians say there’s no shame in being a Dodger. Or so I’ve been told.

The tentative CPUC ruling approving Frontier Communication’s purchase of Verizon’s wireline systems in California avoids claiming any authority to regulate broadband service. Instead, the proposed decision drafted by a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge relies on time-tested public interest criteria, plain old telephone regulatory powers and a set of private agreements between Frontier and a long list of advocacy groups.… More