cpuc

AT&T, Frontier, Charter carve out exclusive California subsidy territory

16 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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As expected, AT&T and Frontier Communications blocked broadband infrastructure grants in vast swaths of rural California yesterday, at least for anyone but themselves. The companies filed reports with the California Public Utilities Commission stating they weren’t giving up federal Connect America Fund subsidies in any of the census blocks they claimed in 2015.

Charter Communications tried a similar trick, submitting a letter telling the CPUC where it will be upgrading video-only analog systems to digital capability later this year.… More

California is losing its grip on utility service and infrastructure

15 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Harold lloyd safety last

The future of northern California’s energy supply, and the utility pole routes that support it, will be largely in the hands of federal judges. Pacific Gas and Electric gave notice yesterday that it will, in all likelihood, file for bankruptcy protection in two weeks. The company said that it may have to pay as much as $30 billion in damages stemming from catastrophic wildfires it apparently played a role in starting in 2017 and 2018.… More

PG&E pulls the plug, filing for bankruptcy

14 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Rampart 300

With liabilities from California wildfires amounting to unknown billions of dollars, Pacific Gas and Electric company announced this morning that it plans to file for bankruptcy as soon as it’s legally able to do so. According to a company press release…

The Company today provided the 15-day advance notice required by recently enacted California law that it and its wholly owned subsidiary Pacific Gas and Electric Company (the “Utility”) currently intend to file petitions to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S.

… More

CPUC approves ownership transfer, re-start of Nevada County FTTH project

10 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Bucket on pole

Updated at 10:41 with statement from Race.

The Bright Fiber FTTH project in Nevada County was resurrected this morning by the California Public Utilities Commission. In a unanimous vote (on the consent calendar, if you follow such things), the CPUC approved transferring control of Bright Fiber Network, along with a $16 million grant, to Race Telecommunications. Several people spoke for and against the project – wireless Internet service providers were against it, the Nevada County board of supervisors and the Gold Country Broadband Consortium were in favor.… More

Nevada County FTTH project gets new lease on life

10 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Spiral event 30oct2014

Update: the CPUC unanimously approved the transfer of Bright Fiber Networks, and the $16 million CASF subsidy, to Race Telecommunications this morning.

The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote today on whether or not Race Telecommunications should be allowed to take over ownership of Bright Fiber Network, which received a $16 million subsidy from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) in 2015 to build an FTTH network to serve 1,900 homes near Nevada City in Nevada County.… More

Zorro in, Yoda out as a new political era begins in California

5 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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Zorro 625 tall

California has had three democratic governors in the past 75 years: Pat Brown, Jerry Brown and Jerry Brown’s chief of staff. And the chief of staff – Gray Davis – didn’t end well. That changes on Monday, when Gavin Newsom is sworn in.

Jerry Brown earned his reputation as the wise old man at the California capitol. But he’s also a skilled operator, with the finest political mind in California. He would jump into a fight when it was both necessary and winnable, and he rarely, if ever lost.… More

Fabricated sales forecasts are a bad basis for handing out broadband “adoption” grants

4 January 2019 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission launched a new, $20 million taxpayer-funded broadband “adoption” program last year. It was included in the $330 million gift to Frontier and AT&T (and Comcast and Charter and…) that the California legislature approved in 2017. The CPUC isn’t setting a quantitative adoption target, and is simply acknowledging that “the number of subscriptions to broadband service has been growing annually in California and adoption will inevitably increase”. Instead, the program is built around digital literacy training, and free Internet access points and equipment.… More

FCC kills CPUC plan to tax text messages

26 December 2018 by Steve Blum

Klingon texting

A plan to tax text messaging services in California is dead. The California Public Utilities Commission will not do that. That’s the conclusion of a new proposed decision, released on Friday by outgoing commissioner Carla Peterman.

They don’t have much choice.

CPUC was originally scheduled to vote on approving the tax on 13 December 2018. But the day before, the Federal Communications Commission decided to classify text messaging as an “information service”, and not as a taxable “telecommunications service”.… More

Charter’s credibility and rural upgrade claims challenged by California regulators

24 December 2018 by Steve Blum
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Charter Communications is facing another inquiry into whether or not it’s telling the truth about obligations it accepted when it bought cable systems owned by Time Warner and Bright House Communications in 2016. The California Public Utilities Commission was asked on Friday by its in-house watch dog – the public advocates office (PAO) – to re-open the case.

The PAO says that there’s reason to think that Charter is fiddling the books when it claims to be meeting broadband system upgrade requirements that were attached to the CPUC’s approval of the purchase.… More

PG&E faces possible breakup, government takeover

23 December 2018 by Steve Blum
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Pacific Gas and Electric could be broken up, reorganised or brought under closer control by the California Public Utilities Commission. The decision to launch a broad investigation into PG&E’s future, including the possibility of a public takeover, was made by commission president Michael Picker and released late on Friday, after financial markets had closed and the holiday exodus had begun.

Radical action of this sort, taken against a major utility, is cause for concern by telecoms companies too.… More