Showing posts with label California Public Utilities Commission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label California Public Utilities Commission. Show all posts

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Coalition of California civic, advocacy groups accuse AT&T of cherry picking, gaming federal subsidy program

A broad-based coalition of civic and advocacy groups led by the California Alliance for Digital Equity are accusing AT&T of gaming a California state advanced telecommunications infrastructure subsidy grant program. The accusation was detailed in a December 11, 2023 letter to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The letter also complains the CPUC has not provided an appropriate and transparent process to comment on the projects proposed by AT&T under the CPUC’s Federal Funding Account (FFA) program. Nearly 900 objections to proposed builds were filed with the CPUC on 484 grant applications for projects in each of the state’s 58 counties totaling more than $4.6 billion -- more than double the $2 billion available.

The funding is authorized by 2021 California legislation allocating federal funding appropriated by the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Similar to the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021, eligibility is limited to “unserved” areas for which no landline service is offered to “an entire community” of at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. The FFA program rules also take into consideration whether proposed projects would target areas prioritized by the CPUC based on demographic and digital equity information and analysis of the number of low-income households, median household income, disadvantaged community status, and digital equity.
“After careful review of the limited information available in FFA project summaries, it is abundantly clear that incumbent ISPs, particularly AT&T, have manipulated the grant process to secure funding for projects that are inconsistent with FFA goals and are attempting to prevent potential competitors from receiving FFA funds,” the letter states.

Every AT&T application advocates reviewed includes a map of a large potential project area with tens, and in some cases dozens, of very small and widely geographically dispersed (sometimes 50 miles or more in largely urban and suburban areas) extremely small service areas. These very small service areas form no coherent whole, and in most cases, these extremely small service areas border or overlap with similarly extremely small service areas inexplicably included in separate AT&T applications. Broadly, this approach is ‘cherry picking,’ wherein a provider delineates a sizable boundary but proposes to serve a small fraction of households within it. This approach also makes collaboration or coordination with local interests impossible.”
Like the Golden State Connect Authority (GSCA), a joint powers authority of 40 counties authorized by the 2021 California legislation to build open access fiber to the premise distribution infrastructure, the groups allege the large number of projects proposed by AT&T calls into question has the financial, technical, or operational capacity to complete all the proposed projects within the timeframe required by program. The GSCA filed objections to 50 proposed AT&T projects.

Notably, Jeff Luong, AT&T’s vice president of network engineering, reportedly said at the recent Fierce Telecom U.S. Broadband Summit that even with AT&T spending about $20 billion per year on infrastructure, “we cannot build out in all the areas we deem as economical.”

The groups expressed concern that AT&T may be gaming the program rules with the numerous small projects in hopes of winning quick approval of each and then rejecting grant funding in order to delay or exclude other applicants from receiving grants.

“We wish to emphasize that it is standard industry practice for providers to claim that they intend to deploy infrastructure in specific areas (thereby preventing other entities from receiving state or federal funding to deploy infrastructure) but never actually do,” the groups wrote.

A potential point of contention suggested by the groups but not explicitly stated in their letter is since FFA program rules limit grant funding eligibility to “an entire (unserved) community,” the disparate proposed AT&T projects cannot reasonably be construed to be serving an “entire community.” The term is not specifically defined in the rules. In a footnote, the rules suggest the CPUC reserves broad discretion to make that determination using “data from a variety of services, including broadband deployment data, subscriber data, crowdsourced data, service quality data, and qualitative data.”

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Nearly 900 objections filed in California subsidy program

Nearly 900 objections have been filed with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) protesting proposed projects requesting subsidies to construct advanced telecommunications distribution infrastructure. Under the FFA program rules, an objection must be based on an error of fact, or policy or statutory law. (Click here for a list of objections: PDF / Excel)

The CPUC’s Federal Funding Account (FFA) program received 484 grant applications for projects in every county totaling more than $4.6 billion -- more than double the $2 billion available. The funding is authorized by 2021 California legislation allocating federal funding appropriated by the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The ARPA was enacted amid the COVID-19 public health emergency to provide support to state, local, and tribal governments including infrastructure investment.

Similar to the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021, eligibility is limited to “unserved” areas for which no landline service is offered to “an entire community” of at least 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. The FFA program rules also take into consideration whether proposed projects would target areas prioritized by the CPUC based on demographic and digital equity information and analysis of the number of low-income households, median household income, disadvantaged community status, and digital equity.

The Golden State Connect Authority (GSCA), a joint powers authority of 40 counties authorized by the 2021 California legislation to build open access fiber to the premise distribution infrastructure, filed objections to 50 projects proposed by AT&T California. The GSCA contends the projects contravene FFA program guidance because they would merely upgrade its existing footprint of landline infrastructure without expanding to outlying locations.

“Additionally, in examination of the sheer number of projects proposed by AT&T statewide and commensurate funding requests, the cumulative request by AT&T for all its projects statewide indicates that the applicant will not have the financial, technical, or operational capacity to complete all the proposed projects within the timeframe required by the Last Mile FFA grant program,” wrote GSCA General Counsel Arthur J. Wylene. “This directly contravenes Last Mile FFA program requirements that an applicant must have the ‘financial, technical, and operational capacity’ to execute the projects for which it has applied within the required timeframes,” i.e. by 2027.

Notably, Jeff Luong, AT&T’s vice president of network engineering, reportedly said at last week’s Fierce Telecom U.S. Broadband Summit that even with AT&T spending about $20 billion per year on infrastructure, “we cannot build out in all the areas we deem as economical.”

According to the CPUC, staff will analyze applications, objections, and their responses and work with applicants and local stakeholders to select the applications most deserving of funding. No awards are expected until first quarter 2024 at the earliest.

Thursday, November 09, 2023

California proposes to regard areas served by DSL and FWA as potentially eligible for BEAD subgrants

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has developed a framework to guide eligibility for the state’s $1.86 billion allocation under the federal government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The framework would regard areas served by DSL and fixed wireless service as potentially eligible for BEAD subgrants. The framework is part of a proposed rulemaking issued November 7.

Under BEAD and its authorizing legislation, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the primary scope of proposed projects eligible for state subgrants is where at least 80 percent of serviceable addresses are not offered service with throughput greater than 25Mbs for downloads and 3Mbps for uploads at latency of less than 100ms, designated “unserved.” Those where at least 80 percent are not offered 100Mbps/20Mbps are deemed “underserved.” 

“The CPUC will treat locations that the National Broadband Map shows to have available qualifying broadband service (i.e., a location that is “served”) delivered via DSL as ‘underserved.’" The CPUC's proposed framework is consistent with BEAD program guidance that acknowledges that in some cases, DSL does not provide consistent access to advertised speeds. "To the extent a particular location is identified on the Broadband DATA Maps as served by DSL at speeds that warrant treatment of that location as 'served' or 'underserved' but is not in fact reliably served at such speeds, this would be a proper basis for challenging the relevant location’s service status during the challenge process created by the Eligible Entity," the guidance states.

The CPUC notes this "will better reflect the locations eligible for BEAD funding because it will facilitate the phase-out of legacy copper facilities and ensure the delivery of ‘future-proof’ broadband service, the proposed framework states. “This designation cannot be challenged or rebutted by the provider.”

Additionally, the CPUC will presume 5,829 locations the National Broadband Map shows “underserved” by DSL as “unserved” for reported speeds that are lower than 30/5, for which there is supporting evidence that speeds consistently deliver below 25/3 service. “Considering the low prospects of providers investing in maintenance of legacy copper plant, low speed DSL should be replaced as soon as feasible with more future-proof infrastructure. This modification will better reflect the locations eligible for BEAD funding because it will facilitate the phase-out of legacy copper facilities and ensure the delivery of ‘future-proof’ broadband service,” the CPUC concluded.

“Due to the possibility of California’s BEAD allocation being fully committed to deploying service to unserved locations, this modification will also ensure that locations served by low-speed DSL are not excluded from eligibility for this critical investment,” citing AT&T’s application for relief from its landline voice telephone service carrier of last resort obligation in rural areas of the Golden State under Title II of the federal Communications Act.

The proposed rulemaking would also regard 36,887 locations that the National Broadband Map shows as “underserved” delivered over Licensed Fixed Wireless (LFW) as “unserved” for reported speeds that are lower than or equal to 30/5 Mbps:

"As a technical matter, fixed wireless speeds fluctuate heavily,” the framework notes. “Given this, speeds that barely qualify as underserved will likely be below 25/3 service during peak usage times. This is especially true of older fixed wireless deployments that struggle to reach higher speeds and mitigate interference and line of sight issues. In fixed wireless networks, service performance can be affected by a customer’s proximity to a base station, the capacity of the cell site, the number of other users connected to the same cell site, the surrounding terrain, and radio frequency interference. Additionally, fixed wireless networks require a clear line-of-sight. Therefore, obstructions, such as trees, can block radio signals and impact the reliability of fixed wireless networks. Poor weather conditions, including rain, can affect the availability and quality of a customer’s fixed wireless service.”
Cellular fixed wireless will similarly undergo critical scrutiny when determining whether an area is deemed eligible as underserved:

“The CPUC has observed that some fixed wireless operators report 25/3 or 100/20 speeds on the National Broadband Map even where their networks frequently reach those speeds only under optimal circumstances and have not been replicated in other testing environments, such as the CPUC’s own CalSPEED process. User agreements for leading providers of cellular fixed wireless indicate that users will be deprioritized during periods of network congestion, decreasing the likelihood that service delivered to consumers will meet the claimed thresholds, especially in future years as network utilization increases.”

The CPUC explained its rationale as due to the possibility of California’s BEAD allocation being fully committed to deploying service to unserved locations. “This modification will also ensure that locations served by low-speed and unreliable cellular fixed wireless are not excluded from eligibility for this critical investment.”

The CPUC said it will treat locations that the National Broadband Map shows to be “underserved” or “served” as “unserved” if rigorous speed test methodologies show otherwise. “This modification will better reflect the locations eligible for BEAD funding because it will consider the actual speeds of locations, leveraging the extensive data collection already conducted by the CPUC and reducing the administrative burden on challengers, providers, and CPUC staff to process challenges for locations already successfully challenged using equivalent evidence to that required for BEAD challenges.”

Friday, July 14, 2023

California legislation imposing universal service mandate on commercial providers founders

Two California bills that would establish a statutory requirement on commercial providers of advanced telecommunications to provide service to all addresses in their service areas have foundered. AB 1714 would effectively do so by defining such providers as common carrier public utilities. The bill has not been set for hearing since it was introduced in February.

The second measure, AB 41, would have required providers issued franchises under the state’s video franchise law by the California Public Utilities Commission to make service available to all residences in its service area within five years following renewal of a franchise. That requirement was deleted from the bill in a July 13 amendment. The bill includes a legislative finding that “Thousands of California households still lack access to video or broadband service, including households that are within the existing service territories of state video franchise holders.”

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Third front opens in advanced telecommunications infrastructure subsidy wars

A third battlefront is opening between shareholders of big telephone and cable companies and the broader public interest over rules governing federal and state subsidies to boost access to affordable and reliable advanced telecommunications. It’s over so-called “technological neutrality” and specifically fiber to the premise (FTTP) versus wireless distribution infrastructure.

The other two likely points of contention are over the accuracy of the Federal Communications Commission’s forthcoming “broadband maps” to determine how much funding states will receive through the federal Infrastructure Bill’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program (several states lack confidence in any federal maps, preferring their own maps that could them at odds with the federal government) and whether proposed BEAD infrastructure projects proposed by public and nonprofit fiber to the premise (FTTP) providers include sufficient “unserved” addresses not advertised reliable service with throughput of at least 20 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up.

The big investor owned, vertically integrated providers want the subsidies to go toward any technology that’s capable of meeting minimum throughput (100/20) and reliability. But at least some policymakers argue the best use of public dollars is to invest them in more durable FTTP infrastructure given its 30-50 year or longer lifespan and headroom to accommodate the well-established trend of increasingly bandwidth hungry end user device applications. They include the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the federal agency administering the BEAD state grant funds and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) at the state level.

On April 21, 2022, the CPUC issued a final decision adopting staff proposed rules for its Federal Funding (capital subsidy) Account (FFA) based on the grant rules promulgated by the U.S. Treasury Department for State and Local Government Capital Projects Fund contained in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). For advanced telecommunications infrastructure, those rules limit funding eligibility to “reliable wireline broadband infrastructure.”

Similarly, the CPUC FFA decision favors FTTP, noting “fiber optic infrastructure is scalable and enables the next generation of application solutions for all communities.” That displeases large incumbent providers that regard fixed wireless as a “firewall” to protect their nominal service territories from government owned and nonprofit providers that would use the federal subsidies for their own fiber builds, according to Steve Blum of Tellus Venture Associates, a consultant to California cities and counties.

Large incumbents including AT&T, Consolidated Communications, Frontier and trade associations CTIA and US Telecom - the Broadband Association are backing an urgency measure pending in the California Legislature to counter the CPUC decision, expressly authorizing wireless internet service providers to receive CPUC infrastructure subsidy funding. It's opposed by an association of 39 California counties and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Current California law, Public Utilities Code Section 281(f)(1) requires the CPUC award infrastructure subsidies on a “technology-neutral basis, taking into account the useful economic life of capital investments, and including both wireline and wireless technology.” The CPUC FFA decision incentivizes fiber given its longer lifespan compared to fixed wireless infrastructure. “Our determination of what wireline technologies offer reliable service is consistent with the Final (U.S. Treasury Capital Projects) Rule, which found that these legacy technologies typically lag on speeds, latency, and other factors, as compared to more modern technologies like fiber," the CPUC decision states.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

California bill would use existing phone surcharge to secure bonds for local government and cooperative-owned fiber to the premise infrastructure

Proposed legislation introduced this month in the California state Senate offers a potentially viable means of financing fiber to the premise (FTTP) advanced telecommunications infrastructure builds owned by local governments and nonprofits such as consumer telecom cooperatives. It does so by creating a financing mechanism to secure bonds to fund FTTP construction with proceeds from an existing California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) surcharge on voice lines to subsidize advanced telecom projects in high cost areas of the state not served by incumbent landline and wireless internet service providers.

Debt service for the bonds could also be provided by project sponsors since the proposed legislation authorizes the CPUC to require they demonstrate the ability to reasonably finance and implement the projects utilizing the proposed bond financing.

The measure is proposed as an urgency measure that would take effect immediately upon enactment.

Thursday, January 09, 2020

California PUC Report: Worsening landline service from AT&T and Frontier


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This disturbing San Jose Mercury News story on a California Public Utility Commission survey covering 2010-2017 found rampant residential landline redlining and lack of investment in landline infrastructure by two of the states largest telcos. From the story:

  • Deteriorating service quality. The quality of AT&T and Frontier
    voice services has steadily declined over the eight year period, with
    the number of outages increasing and the service restoration times
    getting longer.
  • Persistent disinvestment. The depreciation in the value of the
    AT&T and Frontier networks was greater than the companies’ capital
    investments. This was most pronounced in rural and low-income service
    areas.
  • Degradation of landline service and support. AT&T no longer
    actively markets “Plain Old Telephone Service,” or “POTS” and is instead
    promoting broadband service to grow revenues.
  • Failure to improve the network infrastructure to withstand bad
    weather or fire events. The companies’ engineering, design and
    construction, and maintenance practices are not as robust as they need
    to be.
  • Preferential focus on higher income communities. There is an inverse
    relationship between household income and wire center service quality
    performance. For instance, AT&T wire centers that have been upgraded
    with fiber optic disproportionately serve richer communities. Areas
    with the lowest household incomes have the highest trouble report rates,
    the longest out-of-service durations, and the lowest percentages of
    outages cleared within 24 hours.
  • Increased focus on the most competitive communities. AT&T and
    Frontier offer the greatest service in regions of the state where
    competition — and potential loss of customers — is greatest.

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The story notes California law mandates telcos to restore 90 percent of service outages for telephone service within 24 hours or less, on statewide average. “Yet the largest service providers routinely fail to meet these requirements,” said CPUC commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen. AT&T has the financial resources to maintain and upgrade its landline network in California, it has not done so, according to the CPUC. Frontier, in contrast, said it wants to invest in upgrades, but lacks the financial capacity, the Mercury News reports, citing the CPUC report.

A note regarding report item on the promotion of "broadband service" instead of POTs. When AT&T first rolled out Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service nearly two decades ago, that product was promoted during the initial decade. Now that DSL is being phased out as the copper cable plant is placed in runoff mode, that's no longer the case and no successor residential landline product is being promoted for homes not served with fiber connections.











Monday, February 15, 2016

California telecom infrastructure deficiencies concentrated in metro central, north valley counties


The large bulk of California’s deficient access to landline advanced telecommunications infrastructure manifests in the state’s central and north valley regions, concentrated in counties designated by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as urban metro counties.



Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. http://www.ers.usda.gov/datafiles/Rural_Definitions/StateLevel_Maps/CA.pdf

The below state map produced by the Central Coast Broadband Consortium (h/t to Steve Blum of Tellus Venture Associates) shows areas designated by the California Public Utilities Commission as unserved and underserved for landline advanced telecommunications infrastructure are concentrated in and around the Central Valley municipalities of Modesto and Fresno, in the Sierra Nevada foothills east and northeast of the state capital of Sacramento in Placer and El Dorado counties, and up the Interstate 5 corridor in Sutter, Butte and Yuba counties to the Shasta County seat of Redding in far northern part of the state.

These are not sparsely populated areas as shown by the map’s legend, which indicates a large presence of census blocks with populations of 150 to 300 people per square mile (designated as orange) and more than 300 per square mile (designated as red). By definition, a portion of these census block areas is not even considered rural (population density of less than 250 per square mile) by the California Healthcare Workforce Policy Commission relative to the availability of medical services.


Source: Central Coast Broadband Consortium. http://map.centralcoastbroadbandconsortium.org/
Accessed February 14, 2016
 
The takeaway is America’s telecommunications infrastructure deficits and disparate access cannot be necessarily be described as a “rural broadband” issue, particularly when looking at the nation’s most populous state. The operative "R" word here is these areas have been redlined for telecom infrastructure modernization as have similar areas throughout the United States.