Uncategorized – Page 79 – Steve Blum's Blog

Another muni broadband expert says no to being a stage prop for industry lobbyists

3 April 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, fcc, muni broadband, public policy

Citing similar worries as San Jose mayor Sam Licardo over the FCC’s apparent determination to let industry lobbyists write the Federal Communication Commission’s broadband deployment advisory committee (BDAC) manifesto, Miguel Gamino, New York City’s chief technology officer, turned in his letter of resignation last week…

I have expressed concerns with other municipal colleagues in multiple meetings and documents that the makeup of the BDAC, with roughly 75 percent of members representing large telecommunications and cable companies or interests aligned with those companies, would result in recommendations unfavorable to localities looking to responsibly manage public rights-of-way to promote public safety, quality of life, and other priorities.

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Federal broadband subsidy auction doesn't favor California

2 April 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, connect america fund, fcc, public policy

California could, in theory, get as much as $476 million in broadband upgrade subsidies from the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming Connect America Fund (CAF) auction, but the actual total is likely to be a lot less.

Eligible broadband service providers will bid against a “reserve price” that the FCC sets as the maximum it will pay to fund broadband service at a minimum of 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds in (mostly) rural areas that lack it.… More

Tacoma seeks private sector help for its city-owned cable system

1 April 2018 by Steve Blum
muni broadband, public policy, tacoma

The City of Tacoma wants to hang on to its municipal cable system, but it’s looking for someone else to come in and run it. It posted a request for information and qualifications (RFI), asking private sector companies to propose business models.

Examples given include leasing out the system as a whole to an operator, bringing in a company to manage it or running it as an open access system, where competing retail providers would buy wholesale capacity from the system and take responsibility for selling it to customers.… More

FBI didn't tell the whole truth about cracking encrypted iPhone

31 March 2018 by Steve Blum
fbi, hacking, public policy

When a pair of shooters attacked an employee party at a San Bernardino County facility in 2015, killing 14 people before being shot by police themselves, one of the attackers left behind an encrypted iPhone that might or might have had information relevant to the subsequent investigation.

Publicly, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s solution was to force Apple to rewrite its iOS operating system so law enforcement could crack not only the San Bernardino phone, but any iPhone thereafter.… More

San Francisco court punts net neutrality decision back to D.C.

30 March 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, cpuc, fcc, netneutrality, public policy

It was nice while it lasted, but Washington, D.C.’s inexorable gravity has pulled the court fight over network neutrality – or lack thereof – away from San Francisco and back inside the Beltway.

Originally, a judicial lottery determined that the fifteen challenges to the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to roll back network neutrality and broadband status as a common carrier service would be heard by the federal ninth circuit appeals court in San Francisco, where Santa Clara County and the California Public Utilities Commission filed their cases.… More

Telco lobbyists eager to sue states over net neutrality laws

29 March 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, fcc, netneutrality, public policy

AT&T, Frontier Communications and other telcos will meet state and local level network neutrality initiatives head on. Using their Washington, D.C. lobbying front, USTelecom, they intend to “aggressively challenge state or municipal attempts to fracture the federal regulatory structure”. Or lack thereof.

In a rambling blog post that oddly invokes the original U.S. Articles of Confederation – it hasn’t had any legal effect for more than 200 years but even so, it explicitly gave states the power to make such decisions – USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter pledges to say “hell no” to any attempt by states or municipalities to revive network neutrality obligations.… More

FCC prepares to auction off $2 billion in broadband subsidies

28 March 2018 by Steve Blum
broadband, connect america fund, fcc, public policy

There’s $2 billion worth of broadband subsidies on the table at the Federal Communications Commission, and providers that are interested in competing for it have until Friday to register.

The FCC published a list of areas, primarily rural, that were left out of previous rounds of federal Connect America Fund (CAF) subsidies, mostly because it cost too much to build infrastructure there or because incumbent telephone companies didn’t accept the FCC’s offer in the last round.… More

Charter's numbers don't add up, so New York adds a $1 million fine

27 March 2018 by Steve Blum
charter, cpuc, new york, public policy

Charter Communications is playing numbers games with its build out obligations and the State of New York’s Public Service Commission is blowing the whistle. Not just stopping the game, but also assessing a $1 million penalty.

As in California, conditions were attached to New York’s approval of Charter’s purchase of Time Warner Cable. Those obligations include “the extension of Charter’s network to pass an additional 145,000 homes and businesses across the State”. Charter has four years to complete that build out and must steadily complete 25% of the job each year.… More

FCC sets up rich exurb versus poor rural, urban debate over broadband subsidies

26 March 2018 by Steve Blum
cpuc, fcc, monopoly, public policy, rural broadband

Should low income areas be first in line for broadband subsidies? That’s a question that both the Federal Communications Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission are asking. The CPUC is considering giving priority for California Advanced Services Fund infrastructure grants to communities where median household income is at or below $49,200 a year.

The FCC floated that same idea last week. In the course of approving limits on allowable expenses for some subsidised rural broadband projects, it decided to take the next step and ask for public comment on possible approaches: giving eligible consumers a theoretical choice of providers through a voucher system, adding household income to the criteria for picking eligible areas, or even basing federal subsidies on a state’s ability to pay…

For example, should we target support not only to high-cost areas but low-income areas as well?

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