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FCC approval near for Charter's Time Warner takeover

29 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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The clock is just about run out.

All indications are that Charter Communications has cut a deal with the Federal Communications Commission that will allow it to buy out Time Warner’s and Bright House’s cable systems, making it the second biggest U.S. cable company, after Comcast.

Major newspapers and wire services are floating stories that generally all jibe. Which means they’re either banging around in the same speculative echo chamber or the FCC sprung some leaks.… More

AT&T's political troops muscle Tennessee into submission

28 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Lobbyists, primarily from AT&T, won the day in the Tennessee legislature when they leaned hard enough on a handful of lawmakers and killed a bill that would have allowed municipal broadband utilities to expand beyond city limits. According to a story in the Chattanooga Time Free Press, a “platoon” of AT&T political operatives descended on the Tennessee capitol to convince a bare majority of a key subcommittee to kill a compromise bill that would have allowed one pilot project to move ahead.… More

FCC lifeline plan puts mobile carriers' interests ahead of program goals

27 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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PC World’s 2012 test results, click for the full article.

The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote later this week on a plan to transition its lifeline program from voice-only service to a combination of voice and broadband. The program gives a subsidy to service providers – $9.25 per month – so they can offer discounted packages to low income households.

The FCC won’t let the public know the details of the plan until after its been approved.… More

California broadband improves but still falls short of excellence

26 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Average Internet speeds continue to rise in California and across the U.S. Akamai’s quarterly State of the Internet report shows the average Internet connection from Californian users to its content distribution network servers at 15.3 Mbps in the fourth quarter of 2015. That’s a 22% increase from a year before, and more than double – 107% – from three years before, when the average California connection clocked in at a mere 7.4%. Other states saw similar improvements…

In the fourth quarter, average connection speeds among the top 10 states continued the momentum from the third quarter with robust increases seen across the board…All 10 states had average connection speeds meeting the 15 Mbps threshold — up from 8 in the previous quarter—but none had average connection speeds reaching the FCC’s new 25 Mbps broadband threshold.

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Comcast sucker punches business park startups

24 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Ars Technica enterprised a fascinating story that perfectly illustrates the problem new businesses face when looking for commercial and industrial-grade broadband connectivity. Cable companies – in this case it’s Comcast – advertise blanket availability of their highest service tiers, sign up customers to long term contracts, and then don’t deliver because their plant doesn’t reach the location. Or they dither for a few weeks or months, and then come back with a demand for tens of thousands of dollars in installation fees.… More

FCC tongue-tied as appeals court judge blows holes in muni preemption

22 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission has serious difficulties explaining why it has the power to preempt state laws that restrict municipal broadband service. Matthew Dunne, an FCC lawyer, argued the agency’s case before three federal appeals court judges on Thursday, defending last year’s decision to remove state-imposed restrictions on municipal broadband systems in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Wilson, North Carolina.

The case hinges on whether the FCC is using authority granted (or not) by congress to remove barriers to broadband deployment, or if it’s simply interfering in a state’s traditional – and well litigated – right to manage what its cities and counties can do, and how they can do it.… More

Hints of respectability for Google Fiber's sub count

20 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Some tantalising numbers have been published that could be interpreted as bad news for Google Fiber’s subscriber count. Or it might foretell market success. It depends on how you look at it.

MoffetNathanson Research took a bearish look at the latest filings with the U.S. copyright office, which collects pay TV data, and found that Google has 53,000 video subscribers in the three markets where it’s doing business – Kansas City, Provo and Austin – which indicates it grew by only 23,000 subs in 2015.… More

U.S. house bill says bigger ISPs have lower transparency standards

19 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Face it, $100 million is chump change here.

Mid-sized Internet service providers as well as small ones would be exempt from Federal Communications Commission rules that require, among other things, full disclosure of monthly price, fees, data caps and other such terms of service, under a bill approved unanimously (411 to zip) by the U.S. house of representatives. HR 4596 says that transparency rules adopted last year by the FCC, as part of its decision to regulate broadband as a common carrier service, “shall not apply to any small business”, which is defined as “any provider of broadband Internet access service that has not more than 250,000 subscribers”.… More

Charter offers to upgrade Californian systems if CPUC okays deal

18 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Charter Communications is willing to accept a long list of conditions on its purchase of Time Warner and Bright House cable systems in California, albeit not as long a list as the groups that are opposing the deal want.

In a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission, Charter offered to upgrade 70,000 Californian homes from 1980s style analog-only TV service to full digital broadband and video capabilities. That includes systems in the Salinas Valley that it has committed to upgrade, as a result of a negotiated settlement with the City of Gonzales and Monterey County.… More

FCC leaning toward allowing Charter to buy Time Warner

17 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Word is beginning to leak out of the Federal Communications Commission that Charter Communications’ pending purchase of Time Warner and Bright House cable systems will get a green light from regulators. According to Politico, there are serious discussions going on regarding conditions that would be attached to federal approvals…

The latest development shows the Charter deal is further along the path than Comcast’s failed $45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, which never reached the point where regulators seriously considered conditions, the sources said.

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