Uncategorized

California broadband subsidies are now a rigged game

18 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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The era of state-subsidised independent broadband projects is over in California. It ended Sunday night when governor Brown signed assembly bill 1665 into law, with immediate effect.

AB 1665 added $300 million to the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) specifically for infrastructure subsidies, but drastically changed the way the money can be spent. It’s messy and meandering, like most pork laden bills, but the key elements are:

  • The money has to be spent in areas where broadband service is available at less than 6 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds.
… More

Wireless lobbyists will keep swinging in the California legislature

17 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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By Fcb981 (Own work) [GFDL (https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

Senate bill 649 is dead, following a late night veto by California governor Jerry Brown. In his veto message, he was sympathetic to the needs of mobile carriers and other wireless providers, but called for a better balance with the interests local governments have in managing the public right of way.

Translation: try again next year, with something that’s not quite so one-sided.

It’s a sure bet that wireless carriers and their lobbying fronts will be back, along with cable companies, wireline telcos and their lobbyists looking for their slice of the bacon.… More

Brown approves $300 million gift to telcos but vetoes streetlight giveaway

16 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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Nobody says it like Linda.


Just before the clock hit midnight last night, California governor Jerry Brown signed assembly bill 1665 into law, but vetoed senate bill 649.
AB 1665 takes effect immediately. It lowers California minimum broadband service standard to 6 Mbps download/1 Mbps upload speeds and adds $300 million to the California Advanced Services Fund for broadband infrastructure, to be spent under rules will give it to AT&T and Frontier in exchange for token upgrades.… More

Still waiting for Brown to decide and the dust to clear on California broadband bills

15 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Jerry_Brown_Official_Portrait_as_Governor.jpg

Forty years ago, when Jerry Brown was in his first term as California’s governor and I was a cub reporter covering the capitol, he had a reputation for agonising over his legislative decisions right up to the last minute. As he went on to a second term, and then a third and fourth, he and his office became more disciplined and efficient, and usually finished working through the stack of bills sent by the legislature with time to spare.… More

Windows mobile suffers the Blue Screen of Death, Microsoft moves on

15 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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Microsoft is done with the mobile operating system business. The man in charge of Windows 10, Joe Belfiore, announced the end of the mobile version in a tweet. Like Bill Gates, Belfiore switched to Android.

Current Windows mobile users – both of them – will continue to get security updates and other tweaks, but development of the system has ended. The market just wasn’t there, Belfiore tweeted…

We have tried VERY HARD to incent app devs.

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One way or another, major California broadband policy decisions due this weekend

14 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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**Update, 15 October 2017, 0754**: no decision yet on AB 1665 or SB 649. Governor Brown signed AB 1145 into law yesterday.
There are two significant broadband-related bills remaining on governor Jerry Brown’s desk, and one relatively minor one, and he’s leaving them until the last minute. For each, he must choose one of three options by 11:59 p.m. Sunday:

  • Sign it into law.
  • Veto it.
  • Do nothing and let it become law automatically Monday morning, at the stroke of midnight.
… More

CPUC leaves heavy lifting to feds, okays CenturyLink-Level 3

13 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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Update, 18 October 2017: the CPUC posted the final decision, no changes:

CPUC decision approving settlement regarding proposed transfer of control of the Level 3 operating entities, 12 October 2017.

CenturyLink’s purchase of Level 3 Communications has the blessing of the California Public Utilities Commission. In a unanimous vote yesterday, commissioners approved a decision authored by administrative law judge Regina DeAngelis that grants permission, subject to various administrative requirements and compliance with a settlement agreement reached with consumer advocacy groups.… More

CPUC set to wave through CenturyLink-Level 3 deal today

12 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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CenturyLink’s purchase of Level 3 Communications appears ready to sail through to approval by the California Public Utilities Commission later this morning. The proposed decision, drafted by CPUC administrative law judge Regina DeAngelis, was still on the consent agenda as of last night. That means no commissioner wants to talk about it or hold it for consideration at a later meeting.

That’s not a guarantee of approval today – commissioners can put a hold on the decision or pull it off the consent agenda for discussion during the meeting.… More

Court challenge to common carrier status for broadband chugs on

11 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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The usual suspects took their case to the U.S. supreme court last week, asking that the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to classify Internet access as a common carrier service be thrown out. Several lobbying groups, including a couple of cable industry front organisation and telco hired guns, and companies such as AT&T want the supreme court to declare that Internet access is an information service, rather than a telecommunications service.

The basic argument is that since Internet access involves a lot of background routing and (extremely brief) caching of data, broadband providers are producing and/or processing information, rather than just delivering it from point A to point B for subscribers.… More

Brown okays new rules for subscription services, CPUC reform, law enforcement

10 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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As we’re waiting for governor Jerry Brown to decide the fate of the two big broadband bills of the 2017 California legislative session – assembly bill 1665 and senate bill 649 – it’s a good time to take a quick look at some other relevant legislation he’s approved.

Brown signed SB 19 and SB 385 into law. Together, those two bills reorganise some of the California Public Utilities Commission’s responsibilities, although telecommunications oversight was left untouched.… More