frontiercommunications – Page 3

CPUC begins process of holding Frontier to account for service outages, but it might be too late

24 January 2020 by Steve Blum
cpuc, frontiercommunications, privacy, rural broadband, verizon

Nearly four years after the fact, Frontier Communications is being held to answer for the fumbled cutover of Verizon wireline customers it acquired in 2015. Last month, the California Public Utilities Commission formally opened an investigation into the widespread reports of dead lines and customer service meltdowns that went on for weeks after Frontier closed on its purchase of Verizon’s decaying copper telephone systems and somewhat more modern fiber to the home FiOS territories in California.… More

Keep broadband slow so we can ditch copper, AT&T, Frontier tell FCC

23 January 2020 by Steve Blum
att, connect america fund, fcc, frontiercommunications, rdof

The Federal Communications Commission heading toward a vote later this month on the structure of the new Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), which is the reboot of the Connect America Fund (CAF) broadband subsidy program designed for rural communities (although urban and suburban areas sometimes qualify, too). In their eternal quest for more public money and less public service, AT&T and Frontier Communications, among others, are urging the FCC to lower speed standards for subsidised broadband, so they can rip out ageing copper lines and replace them with limited capacity wireless systems.… More

Frontier will walk the same bankruptcy path as PG&E, Bloomberg says

22 January 2020 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, frontiercommunications, rural broadband

The end is near for Frontier Communications, as we know it. According to a story in Bloomberg by Allison McNeely, Katherine Doherty and Sridhar Natarajan, California’s second biggest telephone company will file for bankruptcy in March. Frontier is carrying $17.5 billion in debt – its purchase of Verizon’s Californian wireline systems accounts for a significant chunk of that – and continues to lose broadband subscribers.

Despite being initially considered a saviour for rural Californians held hostage by Verizon’s decrepit copper phone lines – many communities lacked even slow 1990s DSL service – Frontier has proven to be unable to improve broadband service, outside of its affluent urban territories.… More

Penalties, but not prevention, for deceptive ISP billing practices

17 January 2020 by Steve Blum
att, comcast, frontiercommunications, minnesota, monopoly

Cost of Cable Fees in an Average
Monthly Cable Bill (2018). Source: Consumer Reports

It’s common practice for big, monopoly model broadband providers to promise low prices to new subscribers, then tack on arbitrary fees after they’re locked into long term contracts. AT&T was recently slammed for adding a property tax surcharge to some customers’ bills – no one has figured out yet why AT&T thinks it can do that in the first place, let alone why it more than doubled the charge – California property tax rate hikes are tightly restricted.… More

Another $13 million approved by CPUC for California broadband infrastructure subsidies

20 December 2019 by Steve Blum
casf, charter, cpuc, frontiercommunications

Frontier Communications won’t be able to double dip on California and federal broadband subsidies, and Charter Communications won’t have to follow rules that tie price commitments to infrastructure subsidies. Yesterday, the California Public Utilities Commission made those decisions as it approved California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grants totalling $12.7 million for five projects, two by Frontier and three by Charter.

Add in the six CASF grants approved two weeks ago and one approved in September, and you get a 2019 CASF subsidy total of $25.5 million.… More

CPUC approves $12 million subsidy for six broadband infrastructure projects

6 December 2019 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, cruzio, frontiercommunications, plumas sierra

Six of the eleven broadband infrastructure projects on the California Public Utilities Commission’s agenda yesterday were approved for subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). The other five were bumped to the CPUC’s next meeting, on 19 December 2019. Links to the most current resolutions are below.

Cruzio’s Equal Access Santa Cruz project was approved, without changes, for a $2.4 million grant. The commission rejected an attempt by Charter Communications to re-litigate its earlier and unsuccessful attempt to kill it.… More

Mobile data tests count more than maps, as CPUC votes on broadband subsidies for northeastern California

5 December 2019 by Steve Blum
casf, charter, cpuc, cruzio, frontiercommunications

A sharp-eyed reader of this humble blog spotted a gap in my collection of comments on the draft resolutions up for a vote tomorrow. H/T to David Espinoza, the manager of the Upstate and Northeast California broadband consortia, who sent me Plumas-Sierra Electric Co-op’s (PSEC) response to both the draft resolutions for its five proposed projects in Plumas and Lassen counties and the objections raised by the CPUC’s public advocates office. Links are below.

Short version: mobile broadband tests showing zero coverage trumped map models; PSEC added a low-income service plan and CPUC staff recommended extra funding as a result.… More

California broadband subsidies set for CPUC vote, as Charter attempts last minute hit (but not on its own grants)

3 December 2019 by Steve Blum
casf, charter, cpuc, cruzio, frontiercommunications

As of last night, all 11 broadband infrastructure projects tentatively approved for subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) are slated for a final vote by the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday. Arguments for and against the projects and grant conditions as drafted have also been filed. Links to (I think) all of the comments are below.

Frontier Communications made pitches for full funding of their projects as proposed, which were seconded by the California Emerging Technology Fund.… More

USA Today says the slowest rural broadband is in California. The truth is even worse

2 December 2019 by Steve Blum
att, cpuc, frontiercommunications, rural broadband

USA Today fell for a click bait post about rural broadband speeds, but at least it was click bait that made a useful point about the growing gap between rural and urban service levels.

The top line, of the USA Today article and the post on an Internet-oriented aggregator website, is that Newcastle, along Interstate 80 in Placer County, has the slowest rural broadband service in the U.S., with an average download speed of 3.7 Mbps.… More

Frontier digs a deeper digital divide in rural California with taxpayers’ shovel

13 November 2019 by Steve Blum
casf, cpuc, frontiercommunications, public policy, rural broadband

A handful of rural communities in Lassen, Modoc and Kern counties will get their first taste of wireline broadband service from Frontier Communications if the California Public Utilities Commission approves infrastructure construction grants next month.

Unfortunately, it’s just a taste.

Frontier’s (and AT&T’s) strategy, as identified by a CPUC study earlier this year, of “disinvesting in infrastructure overall”, which is “most pronounced in the more rural and low-income service areas”, continues to be business as usual.… More