public policy

Comcast, AT&T have the traffic cones ready for Internet slow lanes

8 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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AT&T and Comcast are offering two good reasons for keeping broadband under the common carrier regulatory umbrella, and not scraping network neutrality rules. Not that they meant to do that. It’s just their nature.

Comcast is backing away from an unconditional promise to abide by net neutrality principles, regardless of whether or not federal rules require it to do so. That pledge was made in 2014, while Comcast was in the middle of an unsuccessful attempt to add cable systems owned by Time Warner and Charter Communications to its portfolio.… More

AT&T, Frontier talk to CPUC about future networks, without putting all cards on the table

7 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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The California Public Utilities Commission looked at telephone company plans to replace copper networks and plain old telephone service (POTS) with new technology at a workshop in San Francisco yesterday. Representatives from AT&T and Frontier Communications talked about some, but not all, of those plans, as I pointed out in the remarks I prepared, and mostly delivered, at the workshop…

The copper-to-IP transition involves three discrete but inter-related issues. Only two of those issues were addressed today.

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California muni broadband battle continues, with or without federal advice

4 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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Even if it’s adopted as is – and it’s as likely to get worse as it is to get better – a wish list of muni-stomping broadband policy drafted by a Federal Communications Commission advisory group, and echoed by the FCC majority, probably won’t have much impact in California.

That’s not necessarily good news for Californian cities and counties, though. One of the recommendations – grant cable franchises on a statewide basis with an impossibly light and delicate regulatory touch – has been law here for more than ten years.… More

Frontier orders a California broadband subsidy sandwich

3 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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The first application for construction (and maybe operations) subsidies from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) since the program was gutted by the California legislature landed in the hopper at the California Public Utilities Commission.

Frontier Communications is asking for a $1.8 million grant, without specifying how much, if anything, it’s willing to pay out of its own pocket. It wants the money to pay for a fiber to the home system in and around the remote San Bernardino County town of Lytle Creek…

Frontier’s proposed project will cover about 4.4 square miles and is a combination of middle-mile and last-mile infrastructure using Frontier’s existing poles and rights of way to deploy fiber-to-the-home (“FTTH”) facilities capable of providing High Speed Internet, Ethernet, and VoIP service with speeds of up to 1 Gbps download and 1 Gbps upload.

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Mobile industry group calls for less 5G hype while standards are established

2 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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A European trade group wants more 5G coordination and less marketing misdirection, while at the same time AT&T is running as fast as it can in the opposite direction. On the one hand, it’s an interesting contrast between the technocratic central planning that European telecoms companies often take comfort in (and often ignore, when it suits them), and the Wild West, grab-it-while-you-can ethic of the U.S. mobile industry.

On the other, it’s a useful reminder that the overheated press releases and aggressive lobbying by U.S.… More

More people, more fire hazards, more damage costs for utilities, at least for now CPUC says

1 December 2017 by Steve Blum
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San Diego Gas and Electric’s shareholders will have to pick up the tab for $379 million of the $2.4 billion worth of damage (and legal fees) caused by a series of wildfires in 2007. Yesterday, the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved a draft decision by an administrative law judge that assigned the blame to SDG&E because, as commissioner Carla Peterman put it, SDG&E “failed to meet its burden to prove it was a prudent manager”.… More

AT&T turns good 4G tech into bad 5G hype and worse public policy

29 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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Minneapolis is AT&T’s latest case study in deceptive, but well-lawyered, public statements. According to a company press release, AT&T is rolling out something that a casual reader might think is 5G…

Minneapolis is one of 20 markets where we plan to bring AT&T 5G Evolution by the end of the year, with this technology already available in parts of Austin and Indianapolis today. 5G Evolution offers customers a taste of the future of entertainment and connectivity on their devices.

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Justice department picks up free market ball as FCC drops it

28 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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Cable and phone companies may soon be free of any obligation to meet common carrier standards of behavior, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they can exert their monopoly muscle on the broadband market without fear of consequences.

Last week’s other big broadband story offers hope of an even more effective counterweight to broadband monopolies: anti-trust law. When the federal justice department sued to block AT&T’s takeover of Time Warner, it made a clean break from recent practice and went after the root cause of the problem – pursued a structural remedy – instead of nibbling around the edges with temporary and often tangential behavioral restrictions on the companies.… More

California wildfires are everyone's problem, regardless of who's at fault

27 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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The recent wildfires that struck seemingly everywhere all at once, but particularly hard in the northern California wine country, might have been caused, in part, by wind whipped electric lines surrounded by a canopy of dense, dry trees. If that’s what happened, then electric companies, and particularly PG&E, could be liable for billions of dollars worth of damage.
It poses a difficult public policy question: who pays? Ratepayers, shareholders or taxpayers?
Coincidentally, the California Public Utilities Commission is due to decide that question at this week’s meeting, at least in regards to a series of wildfires in San Diego County in 2007.… More

FCC safe harbor gift to telcos is a pirate's dream

26 November 2017 by Steve Blum
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The Federal Communications Commission’s sure-to-be-approved draft decision stripping broadband service of common carrier classification could create an island of legal immunity for Internet service providers. At least some of them.

It’s kind of like Pirates of the Caribbean. Not the Disney movie, the real pirates. The ones who looted and murdered their way to riches, and returned to safe havens far beyond the reach of law or civilisation.

The draft removes the FCC from any meaningful broadband oversight role, and preempts states from trying to pick up any of the slack, real or imagined.… More