The California Senate voted 28-9 Friday to raise the minimum standard to 25 Mbps symmetrical from 6 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload under the current law (AB-1665) governing the California Advanced Services Fund (see 2004090056). Opposing SB-1130, Sen. Brian Dahle (R) argued that the point of the slower standard was to focus on unserved areas first. Cover everyone before increasing speeds in places that have service, he said on the Senate floor, livestreamed from Sacramento. SB-1130 author Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) replied, "We shouldn't settle for low speeds." The federal floor is 25/3 Mbps, which isn’t high enough, and many California communities with 6/1 Mbps can’t get funding under AB-1665, she said. The bill goes to the Assembly.
Antitrust enforcers should investigate whether Google is violating antitrust law through exclusive contracts making the platform the default search engine for cellphone manufacturers and online content providers, Public Knowledge wrote DOJ and state attorneys general Thursday. “Lack of competition in search harms consumers and advertisers, as well as other search providers and potential entrants,” PK wrote. “Years of stagnation caused by a lack of competition have likely had harmful effects that are broad and difficult to quantify.” DOJ, Google and the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) didn’t comment. Paxton, who PK addressed in the letter, is helping lead an antitrust investigation of Google (see 2004220067).
Small rural telcos and consumer advocates supported 25/3 Mbps, with caveats, as California’s essential broadband definition in comments filed Wednesday in a utility affordability proceeding at the California Public Utilities Commission. That standard is fine if the agency recognizes smaller companies need state and federal funding to cover their higher costs, CalTel and other small RLECs commented in docket R.18-07-006. The Utility Reform Network said 25/3 Mbps is a “reasonable starting point” but the CPUC should specify that the service must not include data caps and reevaluate the speed every three years. The agency should consider what is an essential data capacity in the proceeding’s next phase, said the Center for Accessible Technology, saying 1 terabyte "is a commonly provided data cap in both market-rate and certain low-income broadband programs." Consolidated Communications warned that broadband internet access services are beyond the agency’s jurisdiction. “Clarify that unregulated broadband Internet access services will not be subject to rate regulation or data reporting requirements beyond providing publicly available pricing information,” it commented. The National Diversity Coalition urged included a household's socio-economic status when defining affordability of essential utility services.
Some 31 Apple stores were shown closed on the company’s website Thursday, including seven in Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced the state will pause further reopening phases amid the surge in COVID-19 cases. The Department of Health State Services estimated 50,774 active cases statewide. Apple showed all four Houston stores closed; the Texas Medical Center reported intensive care unit beds at 100% capacity Wednesday. Harris County, Houston's home, led with 25,786 confirmed cases Wednesday, said Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Seven states reported new highs for current coronavirus hospitalizations this week, saidThe Washington Post : Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. All six Apple stores in Arizona were temporarily shuttered. The state had the biggest upward trend of new cases, said Johns Hopkins. In Florida, Apple stores in Estero and Naples were shown closed, while four of five stores in North Carolina -- and both South Carolina stores -- were shuttered. Two of four Tennessee stores -- Germantown and Nashville -- were closed. Apple began a gradual reopening of U.S. stores last month (see 2005180043) after it temporarily shut all U.S. storefronts in March. The company didn't comment.
More than a quarter of the more than 1 million people searching online for new homes at the peak of COVID-19 in April and May were looking at locales in other U.S. regions, said Redfin. There was a “huge increase” in people in large metropolitan areas “looking online at homes in small towns,” it said Thursday: The pandemic and resulting work-from-home trends are “accelerating migration patterns.” New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles had the biggest “net outflow” of users in April and May, the digital real estate brokerage said.
The Louisiana House supported legislators’ second try on a bill to spur rural broadband by electric cooperatives (see 2006220044). Members voted 102-0 Wednesday, sending SB-10 back to the Senate for concurrence. Cooperatives support SB-10 as passed and expect no issues in the Senate, said Association of Louisiana Electric Cooperatives CEO Jeff Arnold.
Global hyperscale data center bookings will be up sharply in 2020, said Wells Fargo’s Eric Luebchow in a Wednesday note to investors. Hyperscalers, including Microsoft, AWS, Facebook and Google, “are taking down meaningful capacity in the U.S. and Europe and shifting more toward third-party leasing given the demand spikes on their platforms,” he said, noting Northern Virginia leased more capacity this year than in all of 2019. “While several private operators have won significant new hyperscale deployments, we think the broad increase in activity will benefit the operators that have these hyperscalers as existing customers,” Luebchow said: “Pricing in competitive U.S. markets remains at or near historic lows, but appears to have stabilized.”
America’s Public Television Stations is relocating within Arlington, Virginia, July 1 to 1225 South Clark St., emailed CEO Patrick Butler. The new location has “less square footage, more efficiency, a more modern office design, and a lower rental cost for the new 12-year lease,” he said. It's the same building as PBS’ new headquarters. “Staff continues to work remotely while official restrictions and our own health safeguards are in force,” Butler said. Amazon moving to the area its second HQ meant "considerable dislocation," the APTS CEO wrote.
Two Hawaii House committees supported a proposed state broadband grant program Monday. The Economic Development and Business Committee voted 8-0 and the Intrastate Commerce Committee voted 7-0 for SB-2527. The Senate-passed bill needs Finance Committee signoff. In North Carolina, the House Appropriations Committee cleared a broadband bill (SB-284) that day to streamline leasing on state property and provide $1 million in grants for satellite broadband. Senators received HB-1105 Tuesday to appropriate $30 million for an Information Technology Department special supplementary grant process after the House passed it 119-0 Monday. Several states are advancing broadband bills in response to COVID-19 (see 2006220044).
The California Public Utilities Commission extended through Aug. 31 the temporary suspension of state LifeLine renewals and de-enrollments for non-usage and the three-month documentation rule for demonstrating income-based qualification. Administrative Law Judge Stephanie Wang’s emailed ruling in docket R.20-02-008 aligns the CPUC with the FCC’s June 1 order on federal Lifeline, and lengthens a previous ALJ ruling to extend suspensions through June 30 (see 2006080039).