public policy

Five questions about broadband rules the FCC left hanging

5 February 2015 by Steve Blum
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FCC chairman Tom Wheeler released a summary yesterday of the new, common carrier rules he’s proposing for the broadband industry. His overall intent is clear: bring cable companies, wired and wireless telcos and independent ISPs under one common carrier umbrella, at least as far as broadband is concerned. But it was just a summary. The details won’t be made public until the commission votes on 26 February 2015. There’s a lot that’s not clear. My top concerns are…

Muni broadband systems – public utility law generally treats privately owned utilities differently than publicly owned ones.… More

Radical – and imminent – changes in broadband regulation revealed by FCC chair

4 February 2015 by Steve Blum
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A turning point in the battle.

“Retail broadband service Americans buy from cable, phone, and wireless providers” and “the service that broadband providers make available to ‘edge providers'” will be classified as common carrier services, according to a press release from FCC chair Tom Wheeler this morning. The draft ruling that’s circulating at the FCC now would regulate pretty much any kind of Internet access or service using both title II (the common carrier section) and section 706 (the current source of the FCC’s broadband authority) of federal telecoms law.… More

$55 million in rural broadband grants cancelled by FCC

3 February 2015 by Steve Blum
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FCC avoids a “resource-intensive effort”

The FCC chopped 16 more applicants from its rural broadband experiment program. By removing uncertainty as to the outcome, FCC staff is making a mockery of the experiments, creating the appearance that they want an easy ride, rather than a rigorous process designed to test prospective rural broadband systems and business models. Without the possibility of failure, it’s not an experiment and the lessons learned will be meager.

Last month, 37 winning bidders in the subsidy competition were announced.… More

California dreaming is fine, but it doesn't need to end in Texas

2 February 2015 by Steve Blum
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Policy statement.

What’s the crazier idea? Inventing a pod that will carry people hundreds of miles through airless tubes at supersonic speeds, or thinking that hundreds of miles of anything can be built in California in the span of, say, a human lifetime?

Even Elon Musk, who unveiled his plans for the former last year, might find the latter beyond his reach, let alone his grasp. Musk has a team of volunteer engineers working on the technology, and by all accounts they haven’t hit a show stopper.… More

Don't worry about congressional broadband bills, it's up to the FCC and courts

31 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Towering Hoover.

Congress won’t help or hinder the FCC as it makes the most radical government intervention into the workings of the Internet since Al Gore invented it. Broadband is about to be turned into a regulated public utility, run by common carrier rules that go back to the age of the railroad robber barons. And to round it off, states will be told that municipal broadband must be allowed.

Congress critters from both sides of the aisle are looking at next month’s FCC agenda with shock and awe, waving bills that would either double down on federal broadband intervention or strangle it in the cradle.… More

FCC radically changes the broadband game

30 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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The FCC made it official: the benchmark for acceptable broadband service is 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. FCC chair Tom Wheeler’s unctuous endorsement of the new standard at CES earlier this month turned into the new national standard yesterday…

Reflecting advances in technology, market offerings by broadband providers and consumer demand, the FCC updated its broadband benchmark speeds to 25 megabits per second (Mbps) for downloads and 3 Mbps for uploads. The 4 Mbps/1 Mbps standard set in 2010 is dated and inadequate for evaluating whether advanced broadband is being deployed to all Americans in a timely way, the FCC found.

… More

Surprise, Google's fiber announcement didn't make everyone happy

29 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Maybe if they threw in some free beer?

Tuesday’s formal announcement that Google Fiber is heading for 18 cities in four southeastern U.S. metro areas is getting a generally warm and happy reception. But not universally. Grumbles are coming in two flavors: the who in the world needs all this sort – relatively rare so far – and the why not me variety, which is more common.

It has to be frustrating to want fiber to the home service and live in the next city over from one of the blessed.… More

Answers to the three big questions Google Fiber ducked on the way south

28 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Along with a posse of elected officials, Google held four press events in southern states yesterday to formally announce the metro areas and cities picked for fiber to the home builds:

  • Atlanta, Georgia and the nearby cities of Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, College Park, Decatur, East Point, Hapeville, Sandy Springs and Smyrna.
  • Charlotte, North Carolina.
  • The Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina metro area, including those two cities plus Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Garner and Morrisville.
  • Nashville-Davidson, Tennessee.

The next step is to do the necessary, detailed engineering work, a process that’s expected to take several months to complete.… More

Stay rational and deliver on broadband promises if you want more

28 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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Not everyone feels a need for broadband.

There are two things rural communities in California have to do, to ensure broadband development efforts meet both current and future needs: focus the conversation on concrete, rational needs and demonstrate that existing resources are well and enthusiastically used.

That was the message from Eric Brown, CEO of the California Telehealth Network, at last week’sEastern Sierra Connect Regional Broadband Consortium’s conference in Ridgecrest. He was one of many state and local broadband leaders – and users – who talked about the future of eastern California’s economy, now that the Digital 395 fiber route is fully lit and increasingly serving businesses, organisations and consumers from Barstow to Reno.… More

Video of Google's North Carolina press conference is online

27 January 2015 by Steve Blum
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WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina covered this afternoon’s press event there. Which included governor Pat McCrory, seven mayors from the area and Google representatives. The video is available here.

Lots of good words were spoken about fiber, gigabits, Google and North Carolina. The prepared announcement read by Google exec Michael Slinger pretty much tracked with the press release Google posted earlier today. He cited the “passion, commitment and dedication” that the seven Raleigh-Durham area cities brought to the process as key reasons for chosing them.… More