public policy

ISPs should need permission to sell to sell subscriber privacy

26 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Your choice to make.

Mystery continues to swirl around privacy regulations for Internet service providers. The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote on new rules at its meeting tomorrow, but with only a vague summary released to the public, no one outside of chairman Tom Wheeler’s circle of trust knows the details. One particular issue – the ability of ISPs to share your web browsing history – bears watching.

The FCC’s summary pegs web browsing history as the sort of sensitive information that ISPs will have to keep private, unless subscribers give positive permission – opt in – to share it.… More

Californians asked to help find telco trouble spots

25 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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If this looks familiar, you really should take the survey.

If you’ve had problems, or not, completing or receiving a telephone, the California Public Utilities Commission wants to know about it. That includes collect calls and, particularly, calls to 911 or any of its sister services such as 211 (social service referrals) or 811 (underground utility locator, i.e. call before you dig). They also want to know if you’ve “seen conditions with telephone facilities that you believe pose a danger to safety or reliability of communications service (e.g.,… More

Only one regulatory hurdle looms for AT&T-Time Warner deal

24 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Clearing it is not a given, though.

AT&T’s bid to acquire Time Warner has little direct effect on the broadband industry, but the indirect effects have set off anti-competitive alarm bells. Compared to other recent mega-deals, though, there will be relatively little regulatory review of the transaction.

Time Warner already spun off its cable systems into an independent company, which was snapped up by Charter Communications earlier this year. That followed a similar, unsuccessful attempt by Comcast.… More

Now or never: California broadband subsidies will end without fast action

21 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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It’s not just the lakes that are drying up.

No more money will be flowing into the California Advanced Services Fund to pay for broadband infrastructure subsidies. The program has hit the limit set by the California legislature, and the tax that funds it will no longer be collected.
By this time next year, if not sooner, the infrastructure kitty will likely be spent down to zero. If more money is ever going to be added, it’ll have to happen soon.… More

California's broadband competition outlook dims as telcos head for the exit

20 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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The market for high speed, residential broadband service is not competitive in California, and the problem might be getting worse rather than better. That’s one of the conclusions of a draft decision prepared by an administrative law judge for consideration by the California Public Utilities Commission.

Although a typical household might have access to more than one kind of service, most have no choice – or no availability – when it comes to getting Internet access at 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds.… More

CPUC considers manifesto for broadband regulation

19 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Not this Karl.

California doesn’t have a competitive market for broadband service, and the distinction between it and phone service is essentially irrelevant. With all due regard for the danger of trying to boil down 168 pages into 20 words, that’s the bottom line of a proposed decision by a California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge.

ALJ Karl Bemesderfer was given the job of sifting through mounds of data, testimony and arguments submitted in the course of a CPUC investigation into whether there’s sufficient competition among telecommunications companies in California.… More

Last call for California broadband infrastructure subsidies

17 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Drink up time.

The California Public Utilities Commission scrapped the tax that pays for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). The California legislature limited CASF to a total of $315 million, most of which goes to pay for broadband infrastructure projects. It’ll reach that limit by the end of next month, so the CPUC voted on Thursday to halt collection of the CASF surcharge – about half a percent – on telephone bills in California, effective 1 December 2016.… More

Patent trolls come in two sizes, FTC says

16 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Watch out for the little one.

It’s the small patent trolls, the kind cultivated by the predatory bar, that cause the most problems for entrepreneurs and other small businesses. Not problems with million dollar price tags or even vaguely legitimate claims. Just the most problems.

That’s the conclusion of a study by the Federal Trade Commission that looked at what it politely calls “patent assertion entities” (PAEs) and what anyone else – at least anyone who’s actually tried to create something – calls patent trolls.… More

FCC set to cut legacy wholesale broadband prices, oversee faster services

11 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Competitive split.

There’s a 45 Mbps divide in the wholesale bandwidth business, and the Federal Communications Commission is preparing new and separate regulations to address both sides. It’s one of the three key issues that chairman Tom Wheeler promised the cell phone industry he would address to clear the path for deployment of 5G technology, the other two being spectrum and local restrictions on wireless sites.

In a summary – Wheeler doesn’t release drafts of new rules to the public, preferring instead to limit his conversations to industry stakeholders – he described prices for (mostly) legacy broadband services at 45 Mbps and below as “artificially high” and outlined a plan to first cap current rates and then chop them over time, by as much as 20% in the next the three years alone.… More

Reboot for dueling San Bernardino FTTH projects

10 October 2016 by Steve Blum
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Frontier’s federal CAF2 subsidised census blocks.
Two competing proposals to build a fiber to the home system in the San Bernardino County town of Phelan and surrounding communities are now a lot closer to meeting in the middle.

More than a year ago, in August 2015, Race Telecommunications submitted a proposal asking the California Public Utilities Commission for a $48 million grant from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) for its Gigafy Phelan project – that’s 60% of the then-estimated construction cost to reach about 10,000 homes with fiber.… More