cpuc

CPUC votes 3 to 2 to oppose AT&T bid to end wireline service

7 April 2016 by Steve Blum
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By a split vote, the California Public Utilities Commission has gone on record opposing a bill going through the state legislature – assembly bill 2395 – that would allow AT&T to effectively yank out its wireline network at will, and replace it with wireless service. Three commissioners – Catherine Sandoval, Mike Florio and Carla Peterman – supported a staff recommendation to oppose the bill. President Michael Picker, backed by commissioner Liane Randolph, wanted to take a neutral position on the AT&T sponsored bill, which comes up for a hearing next week.

If red tape could carry data, California would lead the broadband world

4 April 2016 by Steve Blum
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A Shasta County broadband project is trapped in California’s web of environmental regulations, and it’s going to cost taxpayers $400,000 or more to pull it out. Not to mention that the rural phone company building the project has to stump up a few hundred thousand dollars of its own.

In 2013, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a $3.1 million grant from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to the Happy Valley Telephone Company to pay for 60% of the cost of upgrading its network in and around the small Shasta County town of Olinda to VDSL2 technology.… More

Austin and KC owe Californians a thank you card for paying their Internet bill

31 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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The gift that keeps on giving.

The fiber to the premise analysis done by the City and County of San Francisco summed up the likely competitive response to a municipal build in two words: Google Fiber. Incumbents in the markets Google targeted responded with upgrades and lower prices…

The incumbent providers’ responses to Google Fiber’s expansion in other cities may foreshadow their responses to a municipal network in San Francisco. After Google Fiber came to Kansas City, incumbent providers Comcast and Time Warner upgraded their networks to double residential speeds, which lowered the dollar per megabit cost of bandwidth for their customers.

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Charter offers to upgrade Californian systems if CPUC okays deal

18 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Charter Communications is willing to accept a long list of conditions on its purchase of Time Warner and Bright House cable systems in California, albeit not as long a list as the groups that are opposing the deal want.

In a filing with the California Public Utilities Commission, Charter offered to upgrade 70,000 Californian homes from 1980s style analog-only TV service to full digital broadband and video capabilities. That includes systems in the Salinas Valley that it has committed to upgrade, as a result of a negotiated settlement with the City of Gonzales and Monterey County.… More

FCC leaning toward allowing Charter to buy Time Warner

17 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Word is beginning to leak out of the Federal Communications Commission that Charter Communications’ pending purchase of Time Warner and Bright House cable systems will get a green light from regulators. According to Politico, there are serious discussions going on regarding conditions that would be attached to federal approvals…

The latest development shows the Charter deal is further along the path than Comcast’s failed $45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, which never reached the point where regulators seriously considered conditions, the sources said.

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You're not one of us, California cable tells Google

15 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Not welcome.

Google probably thought its problems getting access to utility poles in California were safely astern. After all, the California Public Utilities Commission declared that Google is a cable company and has the same right as any other cable (or telephone) company to use utility poles. Turns out, other cable operators, via their Sacramento lobbying front, are claiming that Google Fiber isn’t a member of their tribe and shouldn’t be allowed on poles that they jointly control with electric and telephone utilities.… More

Charter agrees to digital upgrade for Salinas Valley

8 March 2016 by Steve Blum
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Work in progress.

More than 100,000 people living in and around the Salinas Valley are on track for a digital upgrade from Charter Communications within the next three years. If Charter is allowed to buy Time Warner and Bright House cable systems in California and elsewhere.

Charter is the incumbent cable company in most of the Salinas Valley – the major exception is the City of Salinas, which is Comcast territory. Its Monterey County video franchise areas are stuck in the analog era, with 36 channels of old school, standard definition television that costs an eye-watering $106 per month.… More

Californian WISPs argue for exclusive right to offer poor service at a high price

12 February 2016 by Steve Blum
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True. Someone needs to think smarter.

A couple of fixed wireless operators are fighting a rear guard action against a fiber to the home project in Nevada City. Approved for a $16 million California Advanced Services Fund subsidy by the California Public Utilities Commission in December, the Bright Fiber project would bring FTTH service to about 2,000 homes in the Nevada City area. Smarter Broadband and ColfaxNet don’t like that: they’ve gotten used to selling slow and expensive service to people that don’t have a choice.… More

Mobile carriers get fixed terms for utility pole access in California

7 February 2016 by Steve Blum
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Lower obstacles for higher poles.

Mobile broadband carriers – i.e. licensed cellular telephone companies – now have the same access to utility poles in California as wireline telephone and cable companies. That’s the result of a unanimous California Public Utilities Commission decision that modified the rules for attaching wireless broadband equipment, including ancillary gear such as power cabinets and back up batteries, to poles…

With one exception, the amended ROW Rules provide CMRS carriers with the same access to utility infrastructure as CLECs and CATV corporations.

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LA legislator wants to scrap the CPUC and start over again

5 February 2016 by Steve Blum
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When you’re in the broadband business, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that the bulk of the work done by state utility regulators, particularly the California Public Utilities Commission, has nothing to do with telecommunications. And from the most basic, life and death perspective, broadband is nowhere near the top of the priority list.

That privileged position belongs to the natural gas industry, because a mistake can literally destroy a town, due to an explosion, as in San Bruno, or due to a major leak, such as the ongoing one in the Porter Ranch area of Los Angeles County.… More