competition

Justice department picks up free market ball as FCC drops it

28 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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Cable and phone companies may soon be free of any obligation to meet common carrier standards of behavior, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can exert their monopoly muscle on the broadband market without fear of consequences.

Last week’s other big broadband story offers hope of an even more effective counterweight to broadband monopolies: anti-trust law. When the federal justice department sued to block AT&T’s takeover of Time Warner, it made a clean break from recent practice and went after the root cause of the problem – pursued a structural remedy – instead of nibbling around the edges with temporary and often tangential behavioral restrictions on the companies.… More

Feds flex anti-trust muscle and sue to block AT&T-Time Warner deal

21 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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The federal justice department challenged the proposed merger of AT&T and Time Warner in court yesterday, on anti-trust grounds. The problem, according to the justice department’s complaint (h/t to Brian Fung at the Washington Post for the pointer) is that if it owns the entire content creation-ownership-distribution chain, AT&T will use that market power to muscle out its competitors, – traditional linear distribution companies and emerging over-the-top players alike…

If allowed to proceed, this merger will harm consumers by substantially lessening competition among traditional video distributors and slowing emerging online competition.

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Short on dark fiber inventory, PG&E moves toward selling lit service

5 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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PG&E has revealed more details about its telecommunications business plan. In testimony filed with the California Public Utilities Commission, as it seeks permission to expand its telecoms service offerings, PG&E reiterated that it has no intention of offering residential fiber to the home service, or otherwise competing in the retail space. But its motivation for providing “lit” fiber service to wholesale customers appears to be greater than previously assumed. And so is its interest.… More

The U.S. mobile broadband market is competitve, says FCC

3 October 2017 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission has made a case for declaring that the mobile broadband market in the U.S. is broadly competitive, in a qualitative, preponderance of the evidence sort of way. Looking at a number of different metrics, including usage (see chart above), pricing, advertising, investment coverage, the FCC decided that when it was all added up, the result was “there is effective competition in the marketplace for mobile wireless services”.

One key indicator – half statistical, half anecdote – was the way the four major nationwide carriers responded to each other when unlimited data plans were reintroduced…

One significant trend that has developed recently is the return of “unlimited” data plans.

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FCC doesn't know enough about competition, or lack thereof, says GAO

23 September 2017 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission needs better information about broadband competition, according to a report by the federal government accountability office. Existing data shows that 51% of U.S. residents only have access to one provider that offers at least a minimum level of broadband service, which the GAO defines using the FCC’s own advanced services standard of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds.

The agency collects a lot of data, including information about how many broadband providers serve a given market, but not key information about prices and service offerings, the GAO report said…

As indicated by FCC’s broadband data, competition does not exist in all areas.

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PG&E's bid to be a fiber company gets a long review

15 July 2017 by Steve Blum
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PG&E will have to explain how it manages requests from telecoms companies to hang cable and other equipment on its utility poles, as the California Public Utilities Commission reviews its application to become a fully certified, commercial fiber network operator. After a meeting with PG&E and the companies and organisations that have raised objections to PG&E’s move, the administrative law judge, Jessica Hecht, and the commissioner, Liane Randolph, handling the review laid out a year-long review schedule that identifies the issues that will be addressed.… More

PG&E adopts a dark fiber and wholesale telecoms services business model

6 June 2017 by Steve Blum
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The low ball fiber business plan that PG&E submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission drew criticism from several organisations that probably didn’t fully understand it – publicly traded companies usually downplay the profit potential of new ventures, to avoid hyping stocks and running afoul of federal securities laws. In its application for certification as a telecommunications company, PG&E estimated that it "will have approximately 1-5 customers after one year and will have more than 5 customers by the fifth year after commencing provision of the services".… More

PG&E will slow walk its own fiber builds, just like everyone else's

1 June 2017 by Steve Blum
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It’s not going to speed up the process for reviewing requests to attach fiber optic cable to its utility poles, but PG&E won’t give its own, in-house telecoms unit any short cuts either. That’s the top line from PG&E’s reply to objections filed against its request for formal certification by the California Public Utilities Commission as a telecoms company. Several companies and organisations that are, at once, potential competitors, customers and suppliers to a PG&E-operated fiber optic venture (that’s the interconnected nature of the telecoms business) asked the CPUC to delve deeply into the way utility pole attachments are managed.… More

Mobile competition brings big benefits to urban consumers

27 May 2017 by Steve Blum
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Not so bright in rural California

Competition works. Even in the telecoms business. Referencing an article in the Wall Street Journal, FierceWireless is reporting that the cost of mobile data has dropped 13% in the past year, and the reason is increasingly heated competition between the four major carriers, with reintroduction and aggressive marketing of unlimited data plans at the top of the list…

In a detailed article on the topic, the Wall Street Journal reported that the cost of wireless service plans fell 7% in March and an additional 1.7% in April.

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Support for PG&E as a telecoms competitor, if that's all it is

23 May 2017 by Steve Blum
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I’ll show you a pole attachment.

Seven objections, of one variety or another, were filed against PG&E’s bid to be certified as a telecommunications company by the California Public Utilities Commission. Links to all are below.

Three came from industry players, including Crown Castle, which has a growing and competitive fiber footprint in California, and two lobbying fronts, one for cable operators and the other for competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), which are companies that largely rely on reselling access to physical facilities owned by big telcos and fiber network owners.… More