broadband

Another day, another cable deal in California

21 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for a list of communities in California and elsewhere, and a bigger map.

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

Charter pushes ahead with bid to expand California footprint via Bright House purchase

20 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Not dead yet.

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…

The companies remain committed to completing their previously announced transaction on the same economic and governance terms.

… More

Internet companies' seminal argument against common carrier rules slams glow in the dark prophylactic

15 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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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

California cable universe resets to default

10 May 2015 by Steve Blum
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Control-alt-delete.

The last surviving remnant of the failed Comcast – Time Warner – Charter mega mash-up has gone to the Golden Hills. According to a story run on Reuters, Charter’s side deal to buy Bright House is dead…

Charter, the No. 4 U.S. cable operator, clinched the deal with Bright House in March contingent on completion of Comcast Corp’s $45.2 billion merger with Time Warner Cable Inc. Comcast walked away from the Time Warner Cable deal last month because of antitrust hurdles.

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Gee, I guess customers really do want faster broadband says Frontier CEO


Click for a closer look at Frontier’s proposed footprint in California.

Internet service tiers above the Californian minimum of 6 Mbps download speeds are increasingly popular among customers served by Frontier Communications. That’s one of the nuggets from the company’s quarterly earnings report and conference call on Tuesday. New CEO Daniel McCarthy said that 44% of customers who signed up for either new or upgraded Internet service in the first three months of the year opted for higher speeds.… More

Business as usual so far for Frontier's proposed takeover of Verizon's Californian landlines


Round up the usual suspects.

The proposed takeover of Verizon’s wireline broadband, telephone and video systems in California by Frontier Communications hasn’t attracted an unusual amount of opposition yet. That’s not to say there’s no opposition, just that it’s mostly coming from the usual groups making the usual objections.

Three consumer advocacy groups – TURN, the Center for Accessible Technology and the Greenlining Institute – generally said the companies hadn’t provided enough information to the California Public Utilities Commission, which has to approve the deal.… More

Community-owned fiber networks take a big step forward in Santa Cruz County

7 April 2015 by Steve Blum
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Santa Cruz County supervisors are moving ahead with a plan to build a fiber network through key economic development zones, and want to coordinate broadband development policy with the four cities in the county. They voted to put a proposal to form a fiber initiative team in front of representatives from Watsonville, Scotts Valley, Capitola and the City of Santa Cruz, and…

Work with the cities to 1) establish complimentary policies, such as the County’s model “dig once” ordinance, 2) propose changes in planning requirements for residential and business construction, 3) explore grant opportunities, and 4) coordinate sewer, water and road construction projects so that conduit for fiber can be incorporated where feasible in order to enhance broadband connectivity and expansion.

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Frontier says it'll offer Californians better broadband than Verizon

30 March 2015 by Steve Blum
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Click for a bigger version.

Frontier Communications is formally asking the California Public Utilities Commission for permission to buy Verizon’s copper telephone and fiber-to-the-home systems in the state. It’s part of a bigger transaction that includes Verizon’s wireline operations in Florida and Texas.

The California piece is big, involving 2 million subscriber phone lines plus broadband and video accounts. It should also result in better service for people who live in the rural areas where Verizon is letting its copper rot on the poles.… More

We're deciding the future of broadband now

29 March 2015 by Steve Blum
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I was asked to moderate a panel on the future of broadband at the Eastern Sierra Connect Regional Broadband Consortium conference in Ridgecrest in January. You can download the presentation here. To set it up, I put three discussion points on the table:

The future will look a lot like the past, because conduit is forever.

If you drive around southern England, or many parts of Europe, you’ll realise that twenty-first century transportation patterns were, to an amazing degree, determined two thousand years ago by Roman civil engineers.… More

If you like the status quo you'll love the FCC's new Internet rules

16 March 2015 by Steve Blum
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I thought you didn’t want anything to change?

Some questions about common carrier Internet rules were answered, some were, again, left hanging in the FCC’s 400-page decision released on Thursday. Here’s the rundown on the five key questions I highlighted last month…

Muni broadband systems – the new rules don’t specifically address publicly-owned ISPs, but taken together with the FCC’s decision to preempt state restrictions on muni broadband, it’s pretty clear that there’s no exemption.… More