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Feds figure out that the Comcast deal looks the same from Washington as it does from California

21 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Looks the same from either side.

The federal justice department might save the California Public Utilities Commission the trouble of killing the Comcast/Time Warner/Charter deal.

First Bloomberg reported that the justice department is about to send the matter into a proceeding – an administrative hearing – that would, in all likelihood, end with the mega-merger and market swap being tanked on anti-trust grounds. Then, the Wall Street Journal followed up with an article saying that Comcast and Time Warner execs were planning to meet with the justice department on Wednesday to try to negotiate their way out of that dead end process.… More

Tacoma considers a private bailout plan for muni broadband system

20 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Local choice is not a free ride.

The City of Tacoma might back out of the cable TV and broadband business, and lease its municipal cable system to a private operator for 40 years (h/t to the Baller-Herbst list for the pointer).

The muni system – branded Click – was built on the back of a fiber optic network originally installed to support the city-owned electric utility. It competes against Comcast and CenturyLink, which is a benefit to local residents in the sense that they have a third option and a source of pressure on what would otherwise be cable and telephone monopolies.… More

Comcast offers California a few crumbs

19 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Not what the CPUC was thinking of ordering.

It’s almost certainly too little, too late, but Comcast has offered a few concessions to the California Public Utilities Commission, in the hopes of gaining approval for its proposed mega-merger and market swap with Time Warner and Charter. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Comcast came to a public meeting in LA last week with a much lighter alternative to the long list of conditions proposed by a CPUC hearing officer…

On Tuesday the company submitted a list of voluntary commitments that it said would be acceptable.

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Even Google needs video to compete against broadband incumbents

17 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Cut the cord carefully, if you bleed Dodger blue.

Video is an essential part of high speed broadband service. That’s the conclusion that Google has apparently reached. Google Fiber exec Milo Medin spoke at a conference in Florida earlier this week and, according to a story in Fierce Telecom, said…

What we have found is that while it’s not necessary to offer voice service because of wireless [substitution], if you don’t offer a good TV service your ability to compete with incumbents that bundle Internet and TV together is significantly impaired.

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Comcast sings the same old tune in LA

16 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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You weren’t expecting a new act, were you?

It doesn’t look like any progress was made at a California Public Utilities Commission-supervised meeting between Comcast, its would-be mega-merger allies and opponents of the deal in Los Angeles on Tuesday. I was thinking of flying down to LA to see the show, but after reading the news accounts of it, I’m glad I didn’t. It seems – judging from those reports, anyway – that it was more of the same old, same old.… More

More lawsuits challenge FCC common carrier broadband rules

15 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Everyone jumps in.

The telecoms industry is piling on the Federal Communications Commission, filing a total of five separate appeals against the decision to impose common carrier rules on broadband service and infrastructure. The petitions were submitted to the federal appeals court – circuit, as it’s called – based in Washington, DC.

The most detailed protest came from the American Cable Association (ACA), which represents small cable companies…

The order (among other things) reclassifies broadband Internet access service as a “telecommunications service” subject to common carrier regulation under Title II of the Telecommunications Act of 1996…[the sections of Title II the FCC intends to enforce] impose significant new regulatory requirements—including substantive prohibitions, mandatory procedures, and record-keeping requirements on ACA’s members, many of which have never previously been subject to Title II regulation of any sort.

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Net neutrality clock starts counting down

14 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Three, two ,one.

The twelfth of June is the day that new net neutrality rules will become effective. Those rules were approved by the Federal Communications Commission in February and released in March, and were officially published in the Federal Register yesterday, with the 12 June 2015 date specified.

There’s a big if involved, though. That’s only if a federal court doesn’t put everything on hold while considering the legal challenges that have already been filed and those that are expected to come.… More

CPUC commissioner urges rejection of Comcast's California merger plans

13 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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It’s a new game.

The California Public Utilities Commission will formally consider denying Comcast’s proposed takeover of Time Warner and Charter cable systems in the state. Until now, the conversation has been guided by a tentative decision drafted by a CPUC administrative law judge that would approve the merger and market swap, with a long list of temporary conditions. On Friday, commissioner Mike Florio proposed an alternative decision that would reject the deal outright…

Certain material facts are beyond serious dispute: the merger will roughly double Comcast’s share of broadband subscribers in California, leaving it with several times more broadband customers than all its competitors combined; Comcast’s market dominance is even more dramatic if the market is defined as broadband above 25 Mbps; and given this substantial increase in market share, Comcast will have a concomitant increase in control over Californians’ access to online content and services…

Comcast and Time Warner each have an effective monopoly on providing broadband services within its local geographic area…a post-merger Comcast will have a monopoly on speed tiers of 25 Mbps and above in approximately 78 percent of California census blocks, with only one competitor in almost all the rest.

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Richmond's hail mary aside, second batch of CASF public housing proposals looks pretty much like the first

12 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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The second round of applications for grants to install broadband facilities in California public housing projects produced about as many proposals as the first, but the total ask is more than three times as high.

Forty-eight proposals seeking a total of $4.4 million were sent to the California Public Utilities Commission by the 1 April 2015 deadline, versus 52 totalling $1.3 million submitted three months earlier. The difference is in the technologies proposed.

The lion’s share of the requests this time around – $3 million – came from the Richmond Housing Authority in western Contra Costa County.… More

Comcast can't find love at home

11 April 2015 by Steve Blum


Left hanging. Click for the full report.

The City of Philadelphia expects more out of one it’s most prominent corporate citizens. Looking ahead to renewal of Comcast’s cable franchise, the city commissioned a 500-plus page study that found that residents are not getting the level of service they – and, in some cases, the FCC – expect. Mayor Michael Nutter said in a blog post that he’s expecting Philly-based Comcast to up the ante in renewal negotiations…

The City will be seeking high speed broadband capacity and computing technology to support the City’s KeySpots locations and libraries; free broadband access in areas designated as “unserved” or “underserved” or PhillyRising neighborhoods; a program to provide computers and digital literacy education opportunities; and high speed broadband capacity to support the local tech and startup communities, and broadband co-working facilities throughout Philadelphia…

Philadelphia’s cable subscribers reported satisfaction levels ranging from one to eleven percent (1%- 11%) lower than Comcast franchise areas in selected markets where similar studies were completed in the last six years.

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