Uncategorized

T-Mobile-Sprint merger gets a hard look in California this week

5 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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California’s review of the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint goes into high gear on Wednesday. The California Public Utilities Commission will hold a hearing to allow lawyers for the two companies and the organisations that oppose the deal to cross examine experts, and others, who submitted written testimony about it. Three days have been blocked out, although it might not go that long.

The best supported and most coherent opposition to the merger comes from the CPUC’s in-house watchdog unit, the public advocates office (formerly known as the office of ratepayer advocates).… More

Federal appellate judges skeptical of FCC’s net neutrality reasoning

4 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Network neutrality advocates faced off against the Federal Communications Commission and its telecoms industry partners in a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. on Friday. For more than four hours, a panel of three federal judges grilled both sides as they considered whether the FCC acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” when it rolled back net neutrality rules in 2017.

The central question is whether broadband service is a simple telecommunications service – like phone service – or a value-added information service.… More

CPUC judge wants complex pole attachment issues to be even more complicated

1 February 2019 by Steve Blum
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Messy fiber attachments

Utility pole associations, which manage joint use of poles by electric utilities – privately and municipally owned – and telecoms companies of all sorts, should be regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission, according to a ruling by an administrative law judge (ALJ). The ruling focuses on a narrow dispute between two companies: big picture, it’s little more than advice to CPUC commissioners. But it’s bad advice.

The ruling concerns a dispute between Pacific Gas and Electric, which owns poles throughout northern California, and Crown Castle, which is an independent, competitive telecoms company that owns and leases fiber routes, and builds and operates cell sites.… More

Federal judge slams PG&E and CPUC for deadly wildfires

31 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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A federal judge lambasted Pacific Gas and Electric’s and the California Public Utilities Commission’s wildfire prevention efforts, and the California supreme court allowed a key wildfire cost sharing decision by the CPUC to stand yesterday. That follows PG&E’s bankruptcy filing on Tuesday.

Judge William Alsup is PG&E’s probation officer. The corporation was convicted of criminal misconduct following a deadly natural gas line explosion in San Bruno in 2010, and it is accountable to Alsup for how well it’s complying with the penalties handed down, which include good behavior requirements.… More

California’s utility costs, regulation in play as PG&E files for bankruptcy

30 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Pacific Gas and Electric filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday, beginning a process that could lead to significant changes in how electricity and natural gas service is delivered in northern California, and how much it costs. It also has the potential for changing the cost sharing calculations that determine how much telecoms companies pay to share poles and conduit with PG&E.

Assuming the federal court allows the bankruptcy to go forward – not a safe assumption according to analysts quoted by Barrons – private contracts and some regulatory directives by the California Public Utilities Commission could be, um, reimagined.… More

Charter’s vague compliance claims should be publicly verified by CPUC

29 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Charter Communications claims it’s providing near-gigabit level broadband service in virtually all of its Californian territory. Well, some of its Californian territory: in a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission, in opposition to a formal vetting of its claims that it is complying with service upgrade conditions imposed by the CPUC when it received approval to buy Time Warner cable systems, Charter says “it is already making service available at 940 Mbps to over 99% of the relevant households passed as of the end of year 2018”.… More

FCC colluded with mobile carriers to “game” judicial procedure, congressmen charge

28 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Charlottesville streetlights

People at the Federal Communications Commission might have leaned on AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and the Puerto Rico Telephone Company to go shopping for sympathetic judges who would be more likely to bless its preemption of local ownership of streetlight poles and similar municipal assets. A letter sent by a pair of democratic congressmen – Frank Pallone (D – New Jersey) and Mike Doyle (D – Pennsylvania) – directs republican FCC chairman Ajit Pai to enlighten them on why the four wireless companies filed largely identical and completely ludicrous appeals of its September order…

It has come to our attention that certain individuals at the FCC may have urged companies to challenge the Order the Commission adopted in order to game the judicial lottery procedure and intimated the agency would look unfavorably towards entities that were not helpful.

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Cal Fire clears PG&E in huge Napa, Sonoma fire, but still on course for bankruptcy

25 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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PG&E might be out of the chain of liability for the deadly October 2017 Tubbs fire, which swept through 37,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties, burning exurban estates and Santa Rosa tract homes alike. Cal Fire released a report yesterday that points the finger of blame at household electrical equipment on private property.

The lead investigator, Cal Fire battalion chief John Martinez, concluded “during my investigation, I eliminated all other causes for the Tubbs Fire, with the exception of an electrical caused fire originating from an unknown event affecting privately owned conductor or equipment”.… More

Newsom appoints Shiroma, an engineer and ALRB chair, to CPUC

24 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Shiroma

Genevieve Shiroma is the newest member of the California Public Utilities Commission. Appointed on Tuesday by California governor Gavin Newsom, Shiroma will take the seat vacated in December by Carla Peterman. At the same time, Peterman was appointed to a seat on the Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery – a non paid position that requires no senate confirmation. It was created as part of the wildfire liability package – senate bill 901 – passed by the legislature last year.… More

Not much room for mediation in appeals of FCC local pole preemption order

23 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Burlingame poles

The challenge to the Federal Communications Commission’s September Order preempting local ownership and control of municipal property grinds on. The local governments and companies appealing the order, which strips cities and counties of ownership rights to streetlight poles and other such assets in the public right of way, filed brief statements –mediation questionnaires – with the San Francisco-based federal appeals court hearing the case yesterday.

Mobile companies are appealing the order because, they say, the FCC didn’t go far enough and give them everything they wanted.… More