A Big Thank You to Our ARRA-funded broadband staff

Today, September 30, is the last day for our ARRA-funded staff here at the broadband group at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). We want to thank Christian, Mike, Stella, Bill, Russell, and Melanie for their excellent work in mobile field test analysis, GIS, administrative, and IT support. Their efforts helped us exceed our grant objectives. We will miss you, and we hope to be able to work with you in the very near future.

Despite the change in staff, the CPUC will be continuing mobile field testing and GIS activities as before, albeit with increased support from CSU Chico's Geographic Information Center. Round 6 testing, which began this week, will continue as planned for the next 5-6 weeks.

6th Round Testing Begins Today

Round 6 mobile testing begins today in Northern California. The rest of the testers will begin on Monday. In case you missed the recent comments we filed with the FCC regarding mobile broadband, you may download them from the California Broadband Council's web site at:

http://broadbandcouncil.ca.gov/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=156

The analysis in the appendix derives from two papers by Ken Biba, CTO and co-founder of Novarum.

FCC Now Open to Regulating Mobile Broadband

As more and more smart phones proliferate causing more and more to use mobile networks as their gateway to the Internet, should net neutrality would applied to cellular networks? As recently as last spring, the FCC thought no, but in response to a growing chorus of protest, the FCC is reexamining their position. The FCC is changing their perspective in response to comments from Internet companies like Google and cable companies like Comcast. With LTE networks in place, mobile networks are quickly becoming a substitute for internet users who are either on the go and would rather not allocate money for fixed broadband services. In this sort of environment, why should be mobile be exempt from regulation? This week the FCC held a roundtable discussion addressing net neutrality should apply to mobile broadband.