Uncategorized

FCC set to cut legacy wholesale broadband prices, oversee faster services

11 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Competitive split.

There’s a 45 Mbps divide in the wholesale bandwidth business, and the Federal Communications Commission is preparing new and separate regulations to address both sides. It’s one of the three key issues that chairman Tom Wheeler promised the cell phone industry he would address to clear the path for deployment of 5G technology, the other two being spectrum and local restrictions on wireless sites.

In a summary – Wheeler doesn’t release drafts of new rules to the public, preferring instead to limit his conversations to industry stakeholders – he described prices for (mostly) legacy broadband services at 45 Mbps and below as “artificially high” and outlined a plan to first cap current rates and then chop them over time, by as much as 20% in the next the three years alone.… More

Reboot for dueling San Bernardino FTTH projects

10 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Frontier’s federal CAF2 subsidised census blocks.
Two competing proposals to build a fiber to the home system in the San Bernardino County town of Phelan and surrounding communities are now a lot closer to meeting in the middle.

More than a year ago, in August 2015, Race Telecommunications submitted a proposal asking the California Public Utilities Commission for a $48 million grant from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) for its Gigafy Phelan project – that’s 60% of the then-estimated construction cost to reach about 10,000 homes with fiber.… More

Cable franchise audit finds underpayment, misuse of fees

9 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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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

Humans follow California rules, robot cars answer to Washington

8 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Guess which one is a federal case?

If a self driving car still needs a human to be ready to take over operation at any time, then that human needs to be a licensed and fully capable driver. But once autonomous vehicles reach a sufficiently advanced level, then no driver’s licence – no human license – is needed in California. That’s the gist of new draft rules floated by the California department of motor vehicles ahead of a public workshop later this month.… More

The copper GigaWeasel lurks under AT&T's fiber umbrella

6 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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You can see the fiber from here.

AT&T is casting a new shadow on its faster-than-average tiers of service. Instead of calling 300 Mbps copper service Gigapower, it’ll now lounge under the AT&T Fiber umbrella. At least that’s how an AT&T press release reads, when you connect all the dots.

The release says…

Under the AT&T Fiber umbrella brand we will use a variety of network technologies to connect more homes, apartments and business customer locations to ultra-fast and low-latency internet speeds.

… More

Cable, telcos use monopoly muscle to block access to California poles

5 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Barrier to competition.

Google still can’t get access to utility poles in the Bay Area. Whether or not it still wants it is an open question – Google closed its purchase of the wireless Internet service provider side of Webpass this week – but even if it doesn’t, the blocking action by incumbents anxious to protect monopoly markets has caught the attention of California regulators.

The California Public Utilities Commission was told last week that the club that controls pole access – the Northern California Joint Pole Association – has again rejected Google’s requests for membership and permission to use poles.… More

FCC's muni broadband distraction shudders to a final stop

4 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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It’s officially over: the Federal Communications Commission does not have the authority to preempt state authority over municipal broadband systems, even when it thinks the way in which that authority is wielded constitutions a barrier to infrastructure investment. The federal appeals court in Cincinnati made that decision in August, in a case brought against the FCC by Tennessee and North Carolina, and issued the final order yesterday. It was a formality that brings the case to an end.… More

A path forward for new California telecoms rules

3 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Telecommunications regulation reform may live on in California, kept alive by executive order. Even though a grand deal to overhaul the way the California Public Utilities Commission does business collapsed in the final hours of the legislative session in August, a key provision – a review of telecoms regulatory responsibilities – seems to have been brought back from the dead.

When governor Jerry Brown signed the surviving remnants of the deal last week, he included a message to lawmakers detailing his intention to keep pushing ahead with reforms, with or without them.… More

Lower cable bills won't follow new set top box rules

2 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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You still need, and need to pay for, one of these.

When – or if – the Federal Communications Commission adopts new rules that loosen restrictions on the hardware consumers can use to watch video from cable companies and other pay TV providers, it won’t mean the end of equipment fees tacked on to your monthly bill.

The FCC’s preliminary notice of proposed rule making focused on opening up the market for competing hardware, but that provoked a firestorm of protests and intense lobbying efforts by the industry.… More

Bring your own business plan and be ready to die, if you want to go to Mars

1 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Elon Musk outlined his technical roadmap for getting to Mars in a remarkable hour and a half long presentation at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico on Tuesday. Most of what’s been written about it has focused on two themes: the need for a back-up planet in case something catastrophic happens on Earth and the $200,000 ticket price for a ride to Mars. The latter isn’t exactly accurate, and the former is not Musk’s reason for doing it.… More