public policy

San Francisco muni FTTP project hits the rocks

20 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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San Francisco’s $1.9 billion plan to build a citywide fiber to the premise system is dead. At least for now. According to a story by Joshua Sabatini in the San Francisco Examiner, temporary mayor Mark Ferrell didn’t intend to file the paperwork needed to put a tax measure on the November ballot by yesterday’s deadline (h/t to everyone who sent me the link – much appreciated). There’s no indication he changed his mind and, according to the Examiner, would-be private sector partners were told to stand down…

The Office of Contract Administration sent a June 13 letter to the three bid teams informing them of the delay.

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Deal reached to combine California net neutrality bills

19 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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The two network neutrality revival bills moving through the California legislature are now one. Sorta. According to a story in the Los Angeles Times by Jazmine Ulloa, senators Scott Wiener (D – San Francisco) and Kevin de Leon (D – Los Angeles) agreed yesterday to partner up on their net neutrality bills – senate bills 822 and 460, respectively. Wiener will carry the core net neutrality regulations – no blocking, throttling, paid prioritisation or zero rating – while de Leon’s bill will focus on the simpler task of requiring state and local agencies to only buy Internet service from companies that follow those rules.… More

AT&T holds minorities, poor hostage in California net neutrality battle

18 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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The California assembly’s communications and conveyances committee hasn’t published its analysis of network neutrality legislation yet, but it’s getting plenty of analytical help from AT&T. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has uncovered another bespoke white paper that’s circulating behind closed doors in Sacramento. It’s authored by a hired gun economist and distributed by Cal Innovates, a lobbying front for AT&T, Uber and several small companies and non-profits.

The piece takes aim at the ban on zero rating proposed by senator Scott Wiener (D – San Francisco) in senate bill 822.… More

CPUC urged to keep broadband promotion subsidies provider neutral

17 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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Broadband promotion grant rules should have air tight guarantees that the money won’t be used to promote any particular Internet service provider. That’s the consensus of several organisations that reacted to a draft decision that would have the California Public Utilities Commission set up a broadband “adoption” program, subsidised by the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF).

As the new rules were being developed, big, incumbent ISPs argued, in effect, that they should be able to leverage the money to supplement their subscriber acquisition – aka sales – efforts.… More

Debate California’s future, don’t dismiss it

16 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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The plan for dividing California into three states – dubbed Cal 3 by its proponents – qualified for the November general election this week. Reaction from the political establishment of both major parties generally ranged from I don’t think so to yawn. One exception was state senator Joel Anderson (R – San Diego County) who, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, said he will vote for it and called it “a barometer of the potential unhappiness of the state”.… More

SCE proposes doing CPUC reviews the old, costly way to save its fiber business

15 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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Instead of shooting Southern California Edison’s fiber business in the head, the California Public Utilities Commission might have shot itself in the foot. Earlier this year, commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen drafted a plan to kill the business model that the CPUC approved for SCE’s dark fiber leasing enterprise nearly 20 years ago. It was in response to a request from SCE for approval of a high volume master fiber lease agreement it negotiated with Verizon.

In a recent closed door meeting with Rechtschaffen’s staff (plus an advisor to commissioner Lianne Randolph), SCE proposed scrapping the master lease and using the existing time and labor intensive – for SCE and the CPUC – method of reviewing each new agreement individually.… More

Net neutrality bills converge at the California capitol

14 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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The two network neutrality bills moving through the California legislature will finally be reviewed together, or at least one after the other, in a committee hearing. Next week, the California assembly’s communications and conveyances committee is schedule to take up senate bills 460 and 822.

SB 822, by senator Scott Wiener (D – San Francisco) is the stiffer and better written measure. It mimics the same three bright line rules that the Federal Communications Commission enforced until this past Monday – no blocking, throttling or paid prioritisation – and adds zero rating to the list.… More

Judge allows AT&T to buy Time Warner, no strings attached

13 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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A federal judge decided yesterday that AT&T may buy Time Warner’s video and motion picture content companies, including HBO, CNN and the Warner Brothers movie studio. Judge Richard Leon, who was appointed by president George W. Bush, put no conditions on the acquisition. He simply ruled “the government’s request to enjoin the proposed merger is denied”.

The 172 page decision does an excellent of outlining the current state of the video distribution market. AT&T wants to buy Time Warner so its DirecTv and other video services – delivered via satellite and mobile and wireline networks – can better compete with the likes of Netflix, Comcast (which also owns an extensive stable of content companies) and Amazon.… More

Three Californias initiative qualifies for November ballot

12 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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Californians will vote on whether to break up our state into three new ones this November. An petition drive led by Silicon Valley investor Tim Draper gathered enough valid signatures to qualify for the general election ballot, according to the latest count released by the California secretary of state’s office. Draper needed 402,000 valid signatures to automatically qualify on the basis of random sample checking and, so far, 419,000 proved out. A handful of counties still have to report, but it’ll just be icing on the cake.

California rural electric co-op gets $1.8 million to extend FTTH service

12 June 2018 by Steve Blum
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Another 413 homes in small, desert communities in Riverside County are getting high speed, fiber to the home service, via the Anza Electric Cooperative and a grant from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). The California Public Utilities Communities approved a $1.8 million subsidy – $4,300 per home, amounting to 70% of the total cost – extending an earlier CASF-funded FTTH project that reached 3,750 customers in the co-op’s core service area in the Anza Valley.… More