public policy

A so far successful attempt to funnel $300 million of taxpayer money to AT&T and Frontier Communications in exchange for substandard, monopoly broadband service is generating some unpleasant blowback for assemblyman Jim Wood (D – Healdsburg), one of its chief backers. Assembly bill 1665 was overwhelmingly approved by the California lawmakers in the closing hours of the legislative 2017 session.

It reinstates a tax on phone bills that would be earmarked for broadband infrastructure grants, made under new rules that 1.… More

The politics of broadband in California are largely driven by the campaign cash that incumbent telephone and cable companies – and sometimes the unions representing their employees – stuff into the pockets of senators and assembly members. That influence is moderated by the energetic, but often futile efforts of broadband activists across the state. So it was with assembly bill 1665, which is on its way to governor Brown’s desk.

If he signs it, AB 1665 will transform the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) from a useful source of capital for broadband companies that aim to inject at least a little competition into California’s highly concentrated, sclerotic broadband market into a $300 million slush fund, mostly for telcos with rural monopolies, like AT&T and Frontier, but also allowing a taste for cable companies, like Comcast and Charter.… More