broadband

Beltway bandit style Internet regulation might be off the table

5 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is reported to be backing away from his no-lobbyist-left-behind method of imposing and enforcing network neutrality rules. The new plan, according to the Wall Street Journal, is to split the Internet service business into two parts: the consumer-facing retail access business, which would remain as it is – largely unregulated – and the back-side business of interconnecting content companies and other ISPs to those retail customers.

The back-side would be regulated as a common carrier business, presumably subject to some kind of network neutrality rules, although that’s not a given.… More

Californian ISPs pass on upgrades, open door to subsidised competition

4 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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Exercising the right to refuse first.

It looks like the right of first refusal hurdle has been cleared for broadband infrastructure subsidies in California, and successfully so. Assuming no filings are stuck somewhere in the system, only Frontier Communications has told the California Public Utilities Commission that it will upgrade broadband service on its own in at least some of its territory. For up to a year, the commission won’t fund competing broadband projects in the 7 communities identified by Frontier.… More

Frontier pledges to boost broadband service in California

3 November 2014 by Steve Blum
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So far, only one Internet service provider has exercised its right of first refusal to upgrade substandard service areas on its own and thereby prevent competing projects from getting subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund for up to a year. Frontier Communications submitted a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission on Friday making a plausible pledge to improve service in 7 rural Californian communities to at least minimum levels…

The project upgrades are in northeast California in the area of Alturas, Chester, Lake Almanor, Janesville, Shingletown, in the central California area of Tuolumne and along the California and Nevada border adjacent to Topaz Lake, NV on the California side.

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Deadline soon for Californian broadband upgrades or obstruction

31 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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Moderately Lucid Legal.

The first shoe is about drop for the next round of California Advanced Services Fund broadband subsidies. Any “existing broadband provider” can file a letter with the California Public Utilities Commission saying it’s making a commitment to upgrading its infrastructure in a given area, using its own money. If it does, the CPUC will freeze that area for up to a year – not allow any CASF infrastructure grant or loan applications to move forward.… More

Speech isn't free when ISPs can set prices based on content

30 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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FedEx doesn’t charge based on what a document says. Neither should Comcast or AT&T.

California Public Utilities Commissioner Catherine Sandoval has argued – and voted – in favor of regulating broadband infrastructure companies as common carriers, in much the same way as telephone companies, but with a “light touch”. She made her case in testimony at a congressional hearing in Sacramento in September, and later polished it and submitted it to the FCC for consideration in its network neutrality deliberations.… More

Outside plant vandalism is an inside job

29 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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bt photo
On the other hand, he might have just noticed that the concrete lid says “fiber”.

Good information regarding fiber optic networks is often hard to come by. Companies that own it – particularly last mile companies like AT&T and Comcast – don’t want customers or competitors picking apart their offerings, either in terms of unbundling network elements from managed service or trying to figure out in advance where gaps in service might be.

One reason reflexively given is security, but time and again events show that if there’s a threat to physical infrastructure, it’s from inside.… More

Broadcasters delay spectrum auction for at least year, but hey, they're entitled

28 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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Ten years isn’t so long. Unless you’re a dog. Or the Internet.

The possibility of converting prime spectrum from TV broadcasting to mobile broadband use has been pushed off another year. The FCC is delaying the planned auction of 600 MHz broadcast frequencies until 2016, instead of next summer.

It’ll take that long to sort out a lawsuit filed by the National Association of Broadcasters – the primary lobbying organisation for TV and radio station owners – according to the FCC…

Earlier this week, the court issued a briefing schedule in which the final briefs are not due until late January 2015.

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Cities can still use positive incentives to influence wireless broadband builds

27 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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Cities and counties are still in control of their own property, at least concerning decisions about where to install wireless broadband facilities. In a recent ruling that tightens the limits on how local governments may regulate cell towers, antennae and other wireless infrastructure, the FCC said those rules don’t apply when cities are simply acting as landlords…

Courts have consistently recognized that in “determining whether government contracts are subject to preemption, the case law distinguishes between actions a State entity takes in a proprietary capacity— actions similar to those a private entity might take—and its attempts to regulate.”…Like

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Mobile broadband gets faster in California, but maybe not fast enough

26 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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Mobile broadband is better in California, and improvements have been made quickly. That was one of the takeaways from a meeting of Central Coast Internet service providers and California Public Utilities Commission staff in Seaside last week. Jim Warner, a network engineer at U.C. Santa Cruz and chair of the Central Coast Broadband Consortium’s technical expert group, discussed his analysis of results from the latest round of the CPUC’s mobile broadband field testing.… More

Rural broadband needs are low and highly confidential, AT&T says

24 October 2014 by Steve Blum
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AT&T knows what rural broadband customers need. And it’s not nearly as much as what people living in high potential urban and suburban communities need, according to arguments AT&T and DirecTv are making to the FCC, in support of their proposed merger…

Within its wireline footprint, AT&T will extend its ultra-fast, fiber-to-the-premises (“FTTP”) GigaPower wireline broadband service with speeds of up to 1 Gbps to at least 2 million locations. At the same time, in rural, often underserved areas, AT&T will deploy fixed wireless local loop (“WLL”) broadband to an additional 13 million locations.

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