Uncategorized

California rules might make self-driving cars drive for the border

22 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Companies that are developing self-driving cars apparently aren’t happy with proposed new rules floated by California’s department of motor vehicles. There was a public meeting in Sacramento earlier this week to discuss the DMV’s latest plan for opening up California’s road to autonomous vehicles, both for research and development purposes and for actual operation.

The draft would require companies to compile testing data for a year, before applying for permission to run a car without a driver – and without a steering wheel and all the other controls humans need.… More

Now or never: California broadband subsidies will end without fast action

21 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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It’s not just the lakes that are drying up.

No more money will be flowing into the California Advanced Services Fund to pay for broadband infrastructure subsidies. The program has hit the limit set by the California legislature, and the tax that funds it will no longer be collected.
By this time next year, if not sooner, the infrastructure kitty will likely be spent down to zero. If more money is ever going to be added, it’ll have to happen soon.… More

California's broadband competition outlook dims as telcos head for the exit

20 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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The market for high speed, residential broadband service is not competitive in California, and the problem might be getting worse rather than better. That’s one of the conclusions of a draft decision prepared by an administrative law judge for consideration by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Although a typical household might have access to more than one kind of service, most have no choice – or no availability – when it comes to getting Internet access at 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds.… More

CPUC considers manifesto for broadband regulation

19 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Not this Karl.

California doesn’t have a competitive market for broadband service, and the distinction between it and phone service is essentially irrelevant. With all due regard for the danger of trying to boil down 168 pages into 20 words, that’s the bottom line of a proposed decision by a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge.

ALJ Karl Bemesderfer was given the job of sifting through mounds of data, testimony and arguments submitted in the course of a CPUC investigation into whether there’s sufficient competition among telecommunications companies in California.… More

Last call for California broadband infrastructure subsidies

17 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Drink up time.

The California Public Utilities Commission scrapped the tax that pays for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). The California legislature limited CASF to a total of $315 million, most of which goes to pay for broadband infrastructure projects. It’ll reach that limit by the end of next month, so the CPUC voted on Thursday to halt collection of the CASF surcharge – about half a percent – on telephone bills in California, effective 1 December 2016.… More

Patent trolls come in two sizes, FTC says

16 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Watch out for the little one.

It’s the small patent trolls, the kind cultivated by the predatory bar, that cause the most problems for entrepreneurs and other small businesses. Not problems with million dollar price tags or even vaguely legitimate claims. Just the most problems.

That’s the conclusion of a study by the Federal Trade Commission that looked at what it politely calls “patent assertion entities” (PAEs) and what anyone else – at least anyone who’s actually tried to create something – calls patent trolls.… More

Google finds dropping cable off a boat is easier and faster than digging up streets

15 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Many, many middle miles.

Google might be defaulting, excuse me, pivoting to wireless broadband technology in last mile broadband markets, but it appears to be moving full speed ahead with laying underseas fiber to connect continents. And Facebook is sailing right alongside.

Google, Facebook, TE Connectivity – the former Tyco Electronics – and Pacific Light Data Communication, a Hong Kong-based start up, are partnering to build a submarine cable between Los Angeles and Hong Kong, with a completion target of summer 2018.… More

Shifting spectrum from TV to mobile broadband still looks expensive

14 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Broadcasters have reduced their selling price by $32 billion in the second round of the Federal Communications Commission’s incentive auction, which ended yesterday. Even so, there’s still a big gap between that and what mobile broadband carriers were willing to pay in the first round.

The auction is aimed at moving legacy TV stations off of prime UHF real estate so mobile broadband companies can use the bandwidth instead.

The second, reverse round of the auction began last month, with 90 MHz of prime mobile broadband spectrum on the line (and another 24 MHz for unlicensed uses and guard band duty).… More

Broadband projects queued up for Monterey startups


Click for the presentation.

Independent projects are driving broadband infrastructure upgrades on California’s central coast. Maybe not as universally or as quickly as local entrepreneurs would like, but it’s happening. That was my message on Tuesday evening to the the Startup Monterey Bay Tech Meetup in Seaside.

I was asked to give an update on broadband development in the region. Those efforts center on the Central Coast Broadband Consortium (CCBC), an ad hoc group of local companies, agencies and other organisations in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties that essentially have one thing in common: an interest in getting better, cheaper and more reliable broadband service in the region.… More

Mobile carriers losing the data upgrade race to Californian demand

12 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Click for the full picture.

You can get more bits per second from mobile broadband carriers in California, but your odds of getting those faster speeds at any given moment are dropping. That’s what the California Public Utilities Commission’s mobile field testing result are showing. You can read the excellent blog post by commission staffer Rob Osborne here. He shows that mobile broadband speeds are increasing, but sums it up diplomatically: “it’s hard to say, but it appears the likelihood of getting the average speed at a particular location is lower than before”.… More