broadband

Good policy and creative funding drive broadband development

3 September 2016 by Steve Blum
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I gave a presentation on connected cities and broadband planning at the American Planning Association’s California chapter’s conference in Oakland. I was on a panel with Tom Liao from the City of San Leandro, Peter James from the City of Santa Monica and Joanna Jansen, associate principal at Placeworks.

After a quick overview of what broadband really entails – digging and rigging to put it simply – I talked about tools and initiatives that city and county planners can use to promote infrastructure development.… More

Federal reserve urges banks to invest in broadband

31 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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Banks should be in the business of increasing Internet access and use in their communities, according to the Dallas branch of the federal reserve bank. Its white paper, Closing the Digital Divide, is a broadband primer for local bankers and those who would like to work with them. It details how broadband development initiatives can help banks meet obligations for local investment imposed by the federal Community Reinvestment Act.

The white paper makes three useful points.… More

Cooperative broadband is rare, but successful in California

28 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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Rural utility cooperatives have gotten a lot of good ink recently, as a possible alternative to investor-owned broadband companies. Although it’s a business model that’s far more common in the U.S. midwest and south, it’s been successful in California too. At least as far it goes – there are only three rural utility co-ops here.

Anza Electric co-op in Riverside County is in the process of building a fiber to the home system using a grant from the California Advanced Services Fund.… More

Caltrans buries dig once conduit bill

24 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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Too much work.

Under a veto threat from governor Brown, a bill that would have required Caltrans to cooperate with, and even participate in, broadband infrastructure development has been trimmed back to the point where it’s largely symbolic. Not completely: as currently drafted, assembly bill 1549 would still require Caltrans to allow all interested parties – independent Internet service providers and local governments included – to add conduit to state highway construction projects…

For the purpose of supporting fiber optic communication cables, after receiving notification from the department, a company or organization working on broadband deployment may collaborate with the department to install a broadband conduit as part of the project.

… More

When does a duopoly collapse into a monopoly?

21 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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Event horizon.

Comcast and Charter Communications own nearly half of the U.S. broadband market. That’s the result I get from crunching the second quarter 2016 high speed subscriber counts compiled by Leichtman Research Group. Comcast has a quarter of the market – 25% – and Charter has almost as much – 23%. After accounting for rounding, the combination of the two totals out at 47% of U.S. Internet service subscriptions.

AT&T is the only other Internet service provider with double digit market share, but still lags far behind at 16%.… More

CPUC gut-and-amend reform bill published

11 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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No surprise, really.

A draft of a bill to overhaul the California Public Utilities Commission is up on the state legislature’s website. It’s a gut-and-amend job by assemblyman Mike Gatto (D – Los Angeles) on an assembly bill – AB 2903 – that originally concerned damages resulting from the state’s energy crisis in 2000.

It appears to be in line with the grand compromise reached with governor Brown in June. The California Research Bureau, a division of the state library, would get the job of evaluating the CPUC’s future role in telecoms regulation.… More

Caltrans shovels hard to avoid digging once

11 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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Proceed with caution.

The only opposition so far to a bill that would require Caltrans to cooperate with broadband projects and notify companies and local governments when opportunities arise to install conduit is coming, not surprisingly, from Caltrans itself.

Assembly bill 1549 by Jim Wood (D – Healdsburg) has so far sailed through the California legislature unanimously. But with the bill sitting in the senate appropriations committee, the final stop before a full floor vote, the state finance department is pushing Caltrans’ bizarre argument that it’s not needed because its record keeping is so screwed up that fixing it would only make it worse…

Caltrans does not keep a complete and up-to-date inventory of all existing conduits within its existing right-of-way.

… More

California still needs to be a broadband activist

7 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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Market actor.

Ahead of a legislative effort to shake up the way it does business, the California Public Utilities Commission adopted a high-level strategic management plan at its last meeting. The document contains the usual boilerplate about agency effectiveness, performance, and respect for the staff and the public, and touches all the politically correct bases.

But it also describes an activist role in managing the industries under its jurisdiction, including telecommunications, whether or not it can do so via direct, regulatory authority.… More

California's broadband growth flat for six years

5 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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There are two ways to look at the latest Field Poll/California Emerging Technology Fund survey of household Internet penetration: the number of homes with someone online, at one level or another, jumped five points from 79% in 2015 to 84% in 2016, or broadband uptake has stalled in the Golden State for six years.

The case for the former is the topline gloss of the survey which has total broadband penetration at 84%, if you define broadband penetration as at least one person in the house with a smart phone in his or her pocket.… More

Californian telecoms policy decisions slide out of public view in Sacramento

4 August 2016 by Steve Blum
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Affairs of state.

Several broadband-related bills pending in the California senate were sent to the suspense file by the appropriations committee this week. That’s a standard maneuver that keeps them on ice until near the end of August when the session ends. At that point, a small group of legislative leaders will decide which will move forward and which will not.

A proposal to prevent lifeline telephone customers from switching carriers is one of the bills that’s on hold.… More