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Cisco forecasts booming mobile traffic

8 February 2013 by Steve Blum
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WiFi, femtocells supporting mobile data growth.

A third of mobile data traffic isn’t really mobile. It’s offloaded onto WiFi networks and femtocells, most commonly when consumers use their mobile devices at home.

That’s just one of many fascinating findings in Cisco’s latest report on global mobile data traffic. No surprise: it’s growing at a rapid rate, increasing 70% worldwide in 2012. If it weren’t for offloading onto fixed networks, last year’s increase would have been 96%, assuming mobile carriers could have handled the load.… More

Santa Cruz virtually cuts red tape

7 February 2013 by Steve Blum
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Starting a business is hard work and a lot of fun. And then there’s the stuff that isn’t much fun and is mind numbing rather than difficult. Navigating the maze of local regulations and permits usually falls into this middle ground.

The City of Santa Cruz has a twenty first century answer to this problem, called OpenCounter. It’s a website where you can enter a few quick facts about yourself and your new business, and then it’ll get into the necessary details.… More

Local, state role curtailed for tower upgrades

6 February 2013 by Steve Blum
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No substantial change.

Local and state government agencies have to say yes to any request for “collocation, removal, or replacement of transmission equipment on an existing wireless tower or base station,” so long as it doesn’t involve a substantial change to the existing structure’s dimensions. That’s what last year’s Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act required. Now, the FCC has issued guidance that tries to come up with practical rules to apply it.

Drawing on language from a couple of past rulings, the FCC says that…

  • Requests must be granted.
… More

How about renaming the company "Windows"?

5 February 2013 by Steve Blum
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Honest, my first name isn’t Baghdad.

Epidemics are easy to spot in retrospect, but it’s difficult – even dangerous – to predict that one case of a new disease will turn into something virulent. That said, our planet’s mass market of seven or so billion people is slipping away from Microsoft. They’ve caught the same bug that floored the company formerly known as RIM.

Three news items point in that direction. First, Acer is seeing growth in Chromebook sales and sliding Microsoft numbers.… More

CASF grant requests triple the $75 million likely to be in the bank

The grant proposals filed with the California Public Utilities Commission CPUC) on Friday totaled about $246 million. It looks to be about three times the amount of money that will be available in the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) when the Commission votes on the requests later this year. Five of the thirty proposals were submitted with the assistance of Tellus Venture Associates.

In 2010 the California legislature gave the CPUC authority to collect an additional $125 million for CASF via a surcharge on phone bills.… More

Most CASF money requested is for fiber

3 February 2013 by Steve Blum
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The California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) proposal count is now an even 30, with a total of $246 million requested. That’s more than twice the available money in the CASF kitty.

A $13.3 million middle mile project linking Santa Cruz to Soledad in Monterey County is proposed by Sunesys, working with U.C. Santa Cruz.

Nearly half of the total – $119 million – is for the other middle project, a 2,200 mile fiber build through 16 rural Northern California counties.… More

$230 million and counting

At least $230 million in grant and loan proposals were sent to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) yesterday, and more is to come. I’ve seen a total of 29 projects from 15 different organizations. Most of the requests – almost $229 million – are for grants, but half a dozen also requested loans totaling nearly $2 million.

The CPUC doesn’t have that much money in the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). They have something like $150 million left of their original authorization, but probably only about half that is in the bank.… More

CASF requests pushing $200 million already


Big ask for a big project.

I’m counting about twenty applications for California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grants and loans tonight. The deadline just passed, and the dust hasn’t settled from the email service list yet. So there might be – probably will be – more. But the total is pushing close to $200 million, which means there’s going to be some tough decisions coming at the California Public Utilities Commission.

It looks like the combined proposals will go well over the CASF’s authorized limit, let alone what they have on hand.… More

Crunch time for CASF applications

31 January 2013 by Steve Blum
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Friday is the deadline for would-be applicants to the California Advanced Service Fund. Projects proposed for underserved, or combined unserved and underserved, areas have to be filed with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) by 5:00 p.m.

So far, four projects have been circulated to the CASF email distribution list:

  • The Big Dipper project, an upgrade to microwave radio links to improve broadband service in Placer County. They’re asking for a $117 thousand grant.
  • The Olinda project, a $1.8 million grant request for an upgrade to telephone infrastructure in Shasta County.
… More

Blackberry is as good as ever, but no better

30 January 2013 by Steve Blum
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None of this Tomfoolery for Blackberry!

What RIM, excuse me, Blackberry showed this morning was solid technology that’s ahead in some regards and more or less keeping up with the pack in others. The new Blackberry 10 operating system is consistent with what they demonstrated and described last October at MobileCon.

They have a full touchscreen phone and they’re keeping a keyboard model in play. That’s probably a good idea given that their best short term hope is to re-energize their legacy institutional customers.… More