Resources and analysis for community broadband
Just to close the loop, as expected yesterday the California Public Utilities Commission delayed votes on formally junking the proposes Comcast – Time Warner – Charter mega-merger and a plan to evaluate AT&T’s and Verizon’s wireline networks. The Comcast agenda item was postponed until 25 June 2015, the network study item until 11 June 2015.
Jessica Rosenworcel is heading toward five more years as a member of the Federal Communications Commission. U.S. president Barack Obama “announced his intent to nominate” her to a full term on the commission. Once he actually does that, the next step will be confirmation by the U.S. senate.
It’s a good move. Rosenworcel has a history of independent thinking, and voting, as an FCC commissioner. She provided the intellectual push back against chairman Tom Wheeler’s original no lobbyist left behind plan for ensuring network neutrality, and tried to include consideration of common carrier Internet regulation and other alternatives from the beginning.… More
Altice, a European cable company with roots in France and headquarters in business-friendly Luxembourg, is buying 70% of Suddenlink for $9.1 billion. The announcement follows news that Charter is still intent on acquiring Bright House Networks.
Both Charter and Altice are considered possible candidates to buy Time-Warner, which would be a much bigger play than either Suddenlink or Bright House.… More
The California Public Utilities Commission won’t, in all likelihood, be voting on either a proposal to stop a study of AT&T and Verizon’s wireline networks or on formally rejecting Comcast’s defunct request to buy Time Warner’s California cable systems and transfer Charter’s to its control. Both of those items were on the CPUC’s hold list this afternoon, and rescheduled for consideration in two weeks, at the 11 June 2015 meeting. Commissioner Mike Florio asked for the delay on the study vote; staff pulled the Comcast decision.… More
Well, the deal lives. Charter Communications is still in the hunt to take over Bright House Networks. Reuters reported that the deal was off, following the crash of the Comcast-Time Warner-Charter mega-merger. But if anything was actually broken in the first place, it’s now been fixed, according to a press release from Charter…
… MoreThe companies remain committed to completing their previously announced transaction on the same economic and governance terms.
The California Public Utilities Commission doesn’t need facts, it just needs to wave good bye and assume Frontier Communications will pick up the crumbling pieces of Verizon’s copper network. That’s what Verizon is claiming, anyway, in comments filed with the CPUC, endorsing a proposal by commission president Michael Picker to spike a technical evaluation of the condition of Verizon’s and AT&T’s decaying copper networks.
… MoreThe [advocacy groups supporting a network study] claim that before the Commission can authorize the transfer of Verizon to Frontier, it must know the physical condition of Verizon’s facilities to determine whether Verizon bears responsibility for any “neglect of the network before the transfer is approved.”
North Carolina is joining Tennessee, sorta, in challenging a decision by the Federal Communications Commission to negate laws in the two states that put tight restrictions on municipal broadband enterprises. Last week, North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper asked a federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia to throw out the preemption, saying the FCC was butting in where it had no authority to do so…
… MoreIn the Order, the FCC preempts North Carolina’s statutory law…governing municipal provisioning and operation of broadband communications services.
The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on Thursday on whether or not to deny Comcast permission to take over Time Warner and Charter cable systems in the state. On the one hand, it is pretty pointless because the companies have cancelled the mega deal. On the other, it matters because the basis for rejecting the merger rests on a particular interpretation of federal law that, if accepted, gives the CPUC authority to “encourage the deployment on a reasonable and timely basis of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans” by evaluating the effect of corporate telecoms deals and other transactions on broadband infrastructure and services in California.… More
AOL is bringing 2.2 million dial up Internet access subscribers to the Verizon dance. That legacy business generates more than half a billion dollars a year for the former king of online access, according to its fourth quarter 2014 earnings release.
The persistence of the dial up market has been largely attributed to two factors over the past few days: lack of broadband access in rural areas and the appeal of a low, $20 per month price to low income households.… More
The telecoms companies and associated lobbyists that are challenging the Federal Communication Commission’s common carrier rules for the Internet did the completely expected and asked an appeals court to put the new regulations on hold. The move followed the FCC’s completely expected denial of a similar request.
The arguments are pretty much the same. Again, the companies and lobbyists are pulling a public relations stunt by saying hey, it’s okay if the stuff about no blocking goes into effect because we’re such high minded corporate citizens that we’re doing it anyway.… More