ab1665

Four ISPs claim California right of first refusal for broadband subsidies, but big telcos sit it out

18 January 2018 by Steve Blum
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Four Internet service providers exercised their jus primae noctis right of first refusal for California broadband subsidy priority by Tuesday’s deadline. That’s assuming all four got it right, which is doubtful.

When the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) program was turned into a piggy bank for AT&T and Frontier rewritten last year, one of the benefits lawmakers slipped into the bill was an annual opportunity for incumbent providers to claim unserved areas, in exchange for a promise to upgrade broadband service within six months.… More

Blame game won't stop California broadband subsidy giveaway

19 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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The California legislature intended to protect AT&T’s and Frontier Communications’ rural broadband monopolies and subsidise their low speed service, when it passed assembly bill 1665 earlier this year. In effect, that’s what the California Public Utilities Commission said last week as it approved a resolution that allows the two biggest incumbents to claim exclusive rights to broadband infrastructure subsidies in the rural communities they serve (or not).

Telephone and cable industry lobbyists re-rigged the California Advanced Services Fund program and found enough friends in the legislature – democrat and republican – to approve it by more than a two-thirds majority.… More

California broadband decisions hide in D.C.'s shadow today

14 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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The big broadband news will be coming from the FCC later this morning (although there won’t be much, if anything, that’s actually new). But the California Public Utilities Commission is also meeting today, with a handful of broadband-related issues to decide.

One of the resolutions up for a vote would slap down a request from the CPUC’s office of ratepayer advocates to take another look at how cable companies are (not) held accountable under California’s statewide franchising law.… More

AT&T, Frontier talk to CPUC about future networks, without putting all cards on the table

7 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission looked at telephone company plans to replace copper networks and plain old telephone service (POTS) with new technology at a workshop in San Francisco yesterday. Representatives from AT&T and Frontier Communications talked about some, but not all, of those plans, as I pointed out in the remarks I prepared, and mostly delivered, at the workshop…

The copper-to-IP transition involves three discrete but inter-related issues. Only two of those issues were addressed today.

… More

Incumbents get first grab at California broadband subsidies and subs in January

15 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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Yesterday, California’s broadband infrastructure subsidy fund began its transition from a bottom-up program focused on independent, locally developed projects, to a top down one that’s gamed for the benefit of incumbents. The first post-assembly bill 1665 rules for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) were put on the table by the California Public Utilities Commission.

The draft lays out the process for facilities-based incumbents – broadband service providers that own and operate their own equipment, wired or wireless – to exercise their right of first refusal for unserved areas.… More

California broadband subsidy program heads for the deep freeze

20 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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With the stroke of a pen, governor Jerry Brown transformed the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) into a piggy bank for AT&T and Frontier Communications. Carve outs for federally subsidised service areas and the right of first refusal on unserved areas give them an opportunity to claim CASF money for the projects they want to do, and block independent projects virtually everywhere else in their service areas.

Going forward, two questions need to be answered: what will happen to pending CASF infrastructure grant applications and how will the California Public Utilities Commission implement the new rules?… More

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

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

California broadband decisions down to the final day

15 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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Governor Jerry Brown signed 40 bills into law yesterday, and vetoed 14 more, but didn’t act on the two major pieces of broadband legislation sitting on his desk: assembly bill 1665, which would lower California’s minimum service standard to 6 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds, and senate bill 649, which preempts local ownership of street light poles and other vertical infrastructure.
He did approve AB 1145 which gives cable companies public money reserved for public utilities, without public utility obligations.… More