Today:   Charter Investment in Broadband Infrastructure and Technology, California Broadband Grant, FCC Mobile Broadband,  New York Service Quality Hearing

Charter to Invest $25 Billion in Broadband Infrastructure and Technology

During a visit at the White House last week, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge announced that they are building on our commitments to invest in America’s infrastructure and create good paying jobs here at home.  With confidence in the deregulatory policies of the Administration and the FCC, Charter is planning to invest $25 billion in broadband infrastructure and technology in the next four years.  In addition, we are committed to moving all of the former Time Warner Cable customer service calls from offshore to the United States, consistent with our approach at Charter, and will create new jobs to handle those calls.  Rutledge also announced the opening of a new, state-of-the-art, bilingual call center in McAllen, Texas.  “Investing in the communities we serve isn’t just good for the people we’re hiring, it is a critical component of the Charter operating strategy.  Charter is committed to creating a well-trained, highly-skilled, diverse and inclusive workforce to support our customers, drive innovation, and strengthen America’s economy.”  Click here for a link to the story and video.

California Broadband Grant

The PUC has approved funding in the amount of $46,709,036 from the California Advanced Service Fund (CASF) for the grant application of Inyo Networks, Inc. (Inyo) to construct the Digital 299 Broadband Project (Digital 299), which includes both middle-mile and last-mile facilities.  The project will provide high-capacity backhaul infrastructure and interconnection points to communities along State Route 299 corridor.  It will also directly connect 307 underserved households and 102 schools, colleges, research institutions, hospitals, clinics, public safety, tribal lands, and other Community Anchor Institutions.  The project area covers almost 2,400 square miles of rural Northern California between Redding and the California coast, encompassing portions of Shasta, Trinity, and Humboldt counties.

FCC Mobile Broadband 800 MHz Services

At its March 23, 2017, Open Meeting the FCC adopted rules that will facilitate the use of Cellular spectrum for mobile broadband services such as long term evolution (LTE).  Specifically, the FCC will permit Cellular licensees to transmit the same amount of power across the spectrum band, whether they are deploying a legacy (narrow bandwidth) technology or modern (wider bandwidth) technology like LTE.  Other changes will treat Cellular spectrum consistently with other similar commercial wireless spectrum bands by conforming rules related to power measurement, out of band emissions, field strength, and discontinuance of operations and eliminate unnecessary rules related to application filings, domestic and international coordination, and comparative renewal.  A Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes to eliminate unnecessary rules and burdens related to records retention, operators and control points, and employment reports, and seeks comment on whether to simplify and consolidate the rules for Cellular and other commercial wireless services.

New York Service Quality Hearing

The PSC has (once again) issued new due dates for testimony and hearings in the investigation of Verizon’s service quality record and state of the copper network.  Testimony from staff and intervenors is due by 3/24/17 and rebuttal testimony should be filed by Verizon no later than 5/24/17.  Evidentiary hearings will begin on 6/26/17.  TMI Briefing Service subscribers see Briefing dated 4/22/16.  A schedule for the filing of post-hearing briefs will be established after the evidentiary hearings are concluded.

________________________________________________________________

The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Briefing.