Frontier CEO confirms affluent, urban communities to get 1,000X better broadband than poor, rural ones

Frontier 2q2019 broadband results

On Tuesday, Frontier Communications’ CEO confirmed the findings of a California Public Utilities Commission study that concluded that Frontier (as well as AT&T) is “disinvesting in infrastructure overall”, and the disinvestment is “most pronounced in the more rural and low-income service areas”. The company released its financial results for the second quarter of this year on Tuesday, announcing a $5.3 billion loss for the three months and 71,000 fewer broadband subscribers.

Most of the lost accounts – 46,000 – were DSL customers, served, at least in California, via decaying copper networks Frontier acquired from Verizon.… More

“Hunger games” duels for broadband subsidies proposed by FCC

5 August 2019 by Steve Blum
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Hunger games

Broadband subsidies from the Federal Communications Commission are paid for out of the Universal Service Fund" (USF) which, in turn, gets its money from taxes on telephone bills. The FCC runs four programs that way: the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (formerly known as the Connect America Fund), the e-rate program that pays for broadband service to schools and libraries, the rural health care program, which does the same for hospitals, and the Lifeline program, which buys down service costs for low income households.… More

FCC approves new broadband subsidy and data collection programs, but each ignores the other

2 August 2019 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission will be asking for comments on its plan to spend, at first, $16 billion and eventually $20 billion on rural broadband subsidies, with a minimum speed requirement of 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. It’s also moving ahead with a new broadband availability data collection process, based on electronic map files, rather than spreadsheets. The two initiatives were approved at yesterday’s FCC meeting.

Both democratic commissioners – Jessica Roseworcel and Geoffrey Starks – objected to the republican majority’s blind acceptance of broadband availability data submitted by Internet service providers as a basis for deciding where subsidies should be spent.… More

FCC’s rural broadband subsidy reboot proposes faster speeds, but performance is still a question

18 July 2019 by Steve Blum
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Paicines pole route

Broadband service at 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds “is not a luxury” reserved for people who live in cities and suburbs, according to a draft FCC notice that kicks off the process of rebooting federal broadband service subsidies for rural communities. In August, the FCC plans to vote on a draft notice of proposed rulemaking that would open the door to comments and proposals – from any interested party – regarding how to spend “at least” $20.4 billion earmarked for the “rural digital opportunity fund”.… More

Don’t expect fast rural broadband from AT&T or Frontier, lobbyists tell CPUC

Ernestine

Judging from presentations made by AT&T and Frontier Communications lobbyists at a California Public Utilities Commission workshop on Monday, the companies have no plans for significant upgrades to rural broadband service, comparable to urban improvements, despite taxpayer subsidies. Which doesn’t bode well for a $2 trillion infrastructure spending deal announced yesterday in Washington, D.C.

Rural broadband infrastructure was one of the few specific items that came out of a meeting yesterday between president Donald Trump, house speaker Nancy Pelosi and senate democratic leader Chuck Schumer.… More

Pai promises $20 billion for rural broadband, but offers little hope for meaningful change

17 April 2019 by Steve Blum
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It makes for good headlines for a slow Friday at the white house, but so far that’s about all that’s resulted from a $20 billion pledge to support rural broadband development. Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai joined president Donald Trump to hype 5G plans and spectrum auctions, and tossed in a new rural broadband initiative at the end.

Sorta.

Pai’s “Rural Digital Opportunity Fund” is just the next reboot of the long standing Connect America Fund (CAF) subsidy program, that similarly poured billions of dollars into rural broadband projects, according to a story by Jon Brodkin in Ars Technica

The new program will be part of the Universal Service Fund (USF), and it will be similar to an existing USF program that began during the Obama administration.

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FCC embraces 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up standard for faster rural broadband

26 November 2018 by Steve Blum
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The biggest, by far, broadband service and infrastructure program in the U.S. is the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America Fund, which is handing out $3 billion$590 million in California – over the next decade. It’s been paying that money to Internet service providers – mostly incumbent telephone companies – who promise to provide a minimum service level of 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds.

That standard is about to be raised to 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds for some telephone companies because, an FCC draft decision says, “we recognise that access to 25/3 Mbps broadband service is not a luxury for urban areas, but a necessity for all”.… More

California WISPs win $149 million in FCC broadband subsidy auction

30 August 2018 by Steve Blum
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Internet service providers – most, if not all, wireless – will get $149 million in federal subsidies to serve 52,000 homes and businesses in California over the next 10 years. The Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America Fund (CAF 2) auction ended this week. Bidders competed for money to provide broadband service in census blocks bypassed by the main CAF 2 subsidy round in 2015.

Although California didn’t proportionately have as many census blocks and locations on the table as some other states, it came out very well in the bidding, gaining 10% of the total money on offer.… More

FCC lowers rural speed standard to 8 Mbps down, 800 Kbps up

10 July 2018 by Steve Blum
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Internet service providers who get Connect America Fund subsidies from the Federal Communications Commission have to use the money to deliver service at a minimum of 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps up load speeds, in most cases – effectively all cases in California so far. Last week, the FCC defined what that standard really means: subsidised carriers have to run quarterly speed tests that show they’re hitting 80% of the required speed, 80% of the time.… More

Few Californian ISPs make the cut for FCC rural broadband subsidy auction

26 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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At least 13 Internet service providers with some kind of presence in California qualified for the upcoming federal rural broadband subsidy auction that’s scheduled for next month. The Federal Communications Commission released the final list of qualified bidders in the Connect America Fund auction round yesterday. Nationwide, a total of 220 companies qualified, and 57 were axed.

None of the ISPs on the list are obligated to bid for rural territory in California.… More