public policy

A little more light shed on San Francisco muni FTTP contenders

12 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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The City and County of San Francisco has released a little bit of information about the companies that are vying for a $2 billion municipal fiber to the premise (FTTP) project. (Okay, they say it’s $1.9 billion, but at this early stage in the game, the rounder and higher $2 billion figure probably describes it better).

A cryptic post buried on the City’s purchasing website says…

Notice of Shortlist of Respondent Teams selected for Oral Interviews for the Citywide Fiber to Premises Network, Lit Fiber & Wi-fi Services RFQ

The written proposal evaluation for the Citywide Fiber to Premises Network, Lit Fiber & Wi-fi Services RFQ is now complete.

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Oregon approves its own net neutrality revival

10 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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Beginning next year, local and state government agencies in Oregon won’t be able to buy broadband service from providers that don’t abide by the network neutrality principles signed into law yesterday by Oregon governor Kate Brown. The ban includes wireline, fixed wireless and mobile carriers, and extends to service subsidised by public agencies, as well as direct purchases.

An Internet service provider will be on the blacklist if it…

  • Engages in paid prioritization;
  • Blocks lawful content, applications or services or non-harmful devices;
  • Impairs or degrades lawful Internet traffic for the purpose of discriminating against or favoring certain Internet content, applications or services or the use of non-harmful devices;
  • Unreasonably interferes with or unreasonably disadvantages an end user’s ability to select, access and use the broadband Internet access service or lawful Internet content, applications or services or devices of the end user’s choice; or
  • Unreasonably interferes with or unreasonably disadvantages an edge provider’s ability to make devices or lawful content, applications or services available to end users.
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AT&T, Frontier, Comcast, Charter want benefit of California's broadband promotion grants, but not responsibilities

9 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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In the spirit of no taxpayer dollars left behind, big cable and telephone companies want to help spend grants awarded by the California Public Utilities Commission to groups promoting Internet use and subscriptions, but they don’t want to have do anything in return. Cable companies and AT&T filed rebuttals last week to recommendations made by a variety of broadband and consumer advocacy groups about how a “broadband adoption” grant program, newly funded by a tax on telephone bills, should be structured.… More

Should California broadband subsidies backfill big telco, cable marketing budgets?

8 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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When lobbyists for telephone and cable companies convinced biddable lawmakers to turn California’s taxpayer-funded broadband subsidy program – the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) – into their own private, $300 million piggy bank last year, some smaller programs were included. Assembly bill 1665 created a $20 million “broadband adoption” kitty that’s supposed to go toward increasing the number of people who use the Internet. The California Public Utilities Commission is writing new rules to guide how that money is spent, and many organisations, incumbents and non-profit corporations included, have offered recommendations for doing so.… More

Differing views offered on how California should measure broadband success

7 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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The back-and-forth continues over how California’s broadband subsidy programs – grouped under the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) – should be redesigned. Earlier this week, six organisations filed rebuttals to the initial round of comments made last month.

Much of the debate is over how results should be measured and to what degree the organisations that get CASF money should be held accountable for those results. It’s a complicated problem. The answer will largely depend on whether the California Public Utilities Commission reckons “broadband adoption” to be a goal defined by marketing principles – which is where the term comes from and where success is measured by the number of new subscribers – or simply an educational activity.… More

Handful of hopefuls chase contract to light San Francisco FTTP

6 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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Five groups are in the hunt for San Francisco’s citywide fiber to the premise (FTTP) project, at least according to one of the bidders. Monkeybrains, a San Francisco-based wireless Internet service provider, tweeted that they’re on one of the five teams that submitted proposals.

The deadline for filing responses to the City and County of San Francisco’s request for qualifications (RFQ) was last week. According to the San Francisco Examiner, Monkeybrains is talking, but no one else is saying much of anything about it…

Rudy Rucker, who founded Monkeybrains in 1998 with Alex Menendez…that they are part of one team of companies that submitted by last week’s deadline…

“Monkeybrains has teamed up with Black and Veatch, Zayo and Nokia,” Rucker said in an email.

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Muni broadband gets Colorado voter love, but projects slow to follow

5 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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But you never know what you’re gonna get.

I guess this is my week for Colorado stories. Tuesday, voters in six more cities voted to opt out of Colorado’s general ban on municipal broadband initiatives, as state law allows them to do. According to numbers collected by the Denver Post, at least 92 Colorado communities have decided to go their own way. Or at least served notice that they wouldn’t mind doing do. As the article points out, a landslide victory at the ballot box doesn’t necessarily – or even often – lead to shovels in the ground…

Voters in Severance, Lake City, Lyons, Frisco, Firestone and Limon voted overwhelmingly in favor of allowing municipal broadband Tuesday, with margins of 347–92 in Limon and 222–18 in Lake City, for example…

Several communities have teamed up with local telephone companies or internet service providers to bring broadband service to residents and businesses, while Longmont, as well as Montrose and Delta counties, have taken on the task of providing internet service through their electric utilities.

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Colorado hands broadband subsidy decisions to telephone, cable companies

4 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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Colorado has its own version of a state broadband infrastructure subsidy program. Governor John Hickenlooper signed three bills into law on Monday that, together, set up a grant program, funded by $100 million from taxes assessed for universal telephone service, that will pay for broadband projects in unserved areas (h/t to Fred Pilot at the Eldo Telecom blog for the pointer) . Those are defined as places where Internet service at 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds is not available.… More

Another muni broadband expert says no to being a stage prop for industry lobbyists

3 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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Citing similar worries as San Jose mayor Sam Licardo over the FCC’s apparent determination to let industry lobbyists write the Federal Communication Commission’s broadband deployment advisory committee (BDAC) manifesto, Miguel Gamino, New York City’s chief technology officer, turned in his letter of resignation last week…

I have expressed concerns with other municipal colleagues in multiple meetings and documents that the makeup of the BDAC, with roughly 75 percent of members representing large telecommunications and cable companies or interests aligned with those companies, would result in recommendations unfavorable to localities looking to responsibly manage public rights-of-way to promote public safety, quality of life, and other priorities.

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Federal broadband subsidy auction doesn't favor California

2 April 2018 by Steve Blum
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California could, in theory, get as much as $476 million in broadband upgrade subsidies from the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming Connect America Fund (CAF) auction, but the actual total is likely to be a lot less.

Eligible broadband service providers will bid against a “reserve price” that the FCC sets as the maximum it will pay to fund broadband service at a minimum of 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds in (mostly) rural areas that lack it.… More