Uncategorized

Caltrans opens the road for broadband projects

12 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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California highway projects are now broadband projects too. Or can be. Caltrans wrapped up development of standard rules and procedures for adding third party conduit to highway construction projects, and published a guide for “Wired Broadband Stakeholders”. It covers “partnering”, which is adding a separate, third party trench to a road project, and “co-location”, which involves Caltrans and a third party both installing conduit in a Caltrans trench.

There are limits on who can participate.… More

Reporters ripped for muni broadband stories. Is Comcast behind it?

11 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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A “visiting scholar” at the American Enterprise Institute (and a member of Donald Trump’s “landing team” at the Federal Communications Commission) has taken to trash talking writers and publications that reported on a recent municipal broadband study (I haven’t yet – it’s on my to do list). The resemblance to a Comcast-sponsored astroturfing campaign is noteworthy.

Roslyn Layton joined Jeffrey Eisenach and Mark Jamison as volunteers assigned to help cobble together telecoms policy and overhaul the Obama-era FCC.… More

Santa Cruz techies get to CES the hard, fun way

10 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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Four thousand companies brought their products to CES last month, but only one was brought by its product. A five person team from Santa Cruz – Jane Campbell, Elai Dankner, Nicola Hopwood, Cade Vlacos and Christian Shaw – rode 300 miles from Palm Springs to Las Vegas on a Onewheel+ XR, the new, extended range version of Future Motion’s single wheel, electric powered board.

“It was the most epic journey I’ve ever done”, said Campbell. “You feel so free.… More

Mobile isn't a replacement for wireline broadband, says FCC once again

9 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission is maintaining its hard distinction between fixed and mostly wireline, and mobile broadband service. In its 2018 Broadband Deployment report, the FCC reaffirmed that the two are complementary and not substitutes for each other…

We disagree with those that argue that mobile services are currently full substitutes for fixed service. Both fixed and mobile services can enable access to “information, entertainment, [and] employment options,” but there are salient differences between the two technologies.

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Competitive dark fiber gets a reprieve in California

8 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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A proposal to flip – and maybe kill – the business model for dark fiber enterprises run by private electric utilities is on hold at the California Public Utilities Commission. It was pulled off today’s CPUC agenda by commission president Michael Picker and tentatively rescheduled for March.

Last year, Southern California Edison asked for permission to do a master fiber lease deal with Verizon. It seemed to be routine. SCE has been negotiating dark fiber leases on terms established by the CPUC for nearly 20 years.… More

Hey, we're doing a great job deploying broadband, FCC report claims

7 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission (or at least its republican majority) believes that “advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion”. That’s the bottom line conclusion of the 2018 Broadband Deployment report, which was released on Friday.

Writing in Ars Technica, John Brodkin does a great job of unpicking the report’s rhetorical gymnastics, which simultaneously assign credit for successes to current FCC policies and blame for any failings on the previous democratic majority.… More

Riverside's open access muni fiber network is open for business

6 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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Municipal dark fiber is now available for lease on an open access basis in Riverside, California. Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) – the City of Riverside’s municipal electric and water utility – has gone live with its dark fiber webpage, which sets out the rates and terms for leasing strands on its 120 mile network.

The base rate is $125 per strand-mile per month (one mile minimum, by tenth of mile after that), which can fall to $70 with term and volume discounts.… More

California legislature looks at muni broadband rules. Beware

5 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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Municipal broadband is on the line in the California legislature. Assemblyman Ed Chau (D – Monterey Park) introduced assembly bill 1999 last week. As drafted, it would do two things: require muni broadband systems to abide by network neutrality principles and remove restrictions that effectively prevented community services districts from getting into the Internet service provider business.

On the face of it, AB 1999 is straightforward. It succinctly lays out net neutrality rules – no blocking, throttling or paid prioritisation – and applies them to broadband services offered by cities, or by the special districts that are particularly authorised to do so by Californian law.… More

Frontier preps to say adios to California, report says

4 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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Less than two years after it flipped the switch and took over Verizon’s wireline systems in California – and the two million subscribers that were on those systems at the time – Bloomberg is reporting that Frontier wants out. According to the story by Nabila Ahmed and Scott Moritz, the company has engaged advisors in an attempt to reduce a crushing debt load by selling off assets (h/t to Fred Pilot at Eldo Telecom Blog for the pointer)…

The company is considering a sale of a package of landline assets in California, Florida and Texas that it acquired from Verizon Communications Inc.

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Trump turns his back on new broadband spending

3 February 2018 by Steve Blum
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President Donald Trump might want to pump $1.5 trillion into infrastructure upgrades, but don’t expect any new federal money to be earmarked for rural broadband projects. It’s not clear how much of the $1.5 trillion is new spending, or the extent to which existing programs are bundled into it, but either way there isn’t much enthusiasm in the white house or the republican-controlled house of representatives for dedicated broadband funding, according to Politico. The republican telecoms policy lead in the house, representative Marsha Blackburn (R – Tennessee) says she…

Wants to focus on bills to streamline permitting and clear away regulations impeding new networks, and attach them to the infrastructure legislation.

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