An Ignoble Experiment

AT&T (NYSE: T) has filed a suit against San Francisco over its protest to the telco's proposed placement of utility boxes on city sidewalks that will house the VRAD equipment to support its U-verse broadband and IPTV service.

According to a KCBS Radio article, AT&T said they were thinking of filing a lawsuit if San Francisco's Board of Supervisors adopted proposed legislation that would allow the public to provide input on the placement of the boxes on private property.

This effort has been spearheaded by Scott Weiner, a member of the Board of Supervisors that unanimously voted last week to approve his legislation.

His legislation would require providers to find alternative areas to place utility boxes underground or in alleyways, force them to allow artwork on the boxes or pay for landscaping around them. In addition, AT&T and other utility companies installing new boxes would be required to propose various locations and hold a "public meeting as part of a 'pre-application' process so neighbors can weigh in ahead of time."

To date, AT&T has installed only about 200 of the 726 cabinets. The telco claims that the city has denied permits for 26 of the boxes without providing them with alternative locations, while taking over 60 days to rule on another 67 permits.

Battles between AT&T and San Francisco have been going on for a number of years. Amidst protest from a number of local community groups in July 2012, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Teri Jackson ruled that telco could install up to 726 U-verse utility boxes on the city's sidewalks.

San Francicso is only one of several cities where it has faced opposition of the placement of its utility boxes to expand the U-verse service. Similar issues came up in both Greensboro, N.C., and Wheaton, Ill.

For more:
- KCBS Radio has this article
- Broadband Reports has this article

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2. FCC's Connect America Fund upheld by appeals court

By Sean Buckley

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The FCC won a victory to maintain its Connect America Fund (CAF), a $4.5 billion plan set on bringing broadband service to 7 million people, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Denver upheld the program.

CAF had been challenged by a number of independent telcos that cited concern about the financial impact that would be caused by the FCC shifting annual telephone subsidies to fund broadband deployments in rural areas.

One of the key concerns was the change in the intercarrier compensations system (ICS), which could have a larger effect on smaller telcos due to the exchanging of funds between carriers to transfer calls between one another primarily in rural areas.

However, the appeals court did not agree with the service providers' claims, ruling that after "considering those claims, we find them either unpersuasive or barred from judicial review."

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn issued a statement favoring the decision.

"After years of good faith efforts faltered, voting to approve the comprehensive reform of universal service and intercarrier compensation continues to be one of my proudest moments at the FCC," Clyburn said. "The reforms are changing the lives of millions of Americans who will receive broadband for the first time. I am extremely pleased that the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the FCC's decision. I look forward to working with the Chairman and my colleagues as we tackle the next steps of reform."

Rural telco organization NTCA, while not happy with the decision, said it will continue to work with the FCC to resolve issues around the universal service fund and intercarrier compensation reform.

"While today's court decision is disappointing, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association continues to work with the FCC and Congress to address many of the concerns rural carriers have raised over the last two-plus years about aspects of the 2011 Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation reforms," said Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of the NTCA, in a statement. "Through hundreds of meetings with commissioners and staff and engagement with members of Congress, we have already achieved several key course corrections since 2011, including the elimination of the quantile regression analysis caps and reinstatement of safety net additive support."

For more:
- electronista has this article

3. Allstream becomes first Canadian operator to get MEF 2.0 certification

By Sean Buckley

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Allstream, Manitoba Telecom Services' business services subsidiary, has added the Metro Ethernet Forum's Carrier Ethernet 2.0 certification to its growing list of amenities to attract new multi-site business customers.

The MEF granted its CE 2.0 certification to two of Allstream's key Ethernet-based products: E-Line and E-Access. These services are designed to simplify the network infrastructure, particularly for multi-site businesses.

By gaining the CE 2.0 certification, Allstream will have a near-term differentiator to battle large rivals like Bell Canada and Telus.

Allstream also can play up the fact that it has been expanding its on-net building presence, another key element in a service provider's ability to provide fiber-based Ethernet services. In the first quarter of 2014, it expanded its on-net fiber footprint by adding 66 buildings to its IP-based fiber network. As of the end of March, it had a total of 3,069 buildings.

For more:
- see the release

4. Alcatel-Lucent, Bolt Fiber Optic Services to bring 1 Gbps broadband to northeast Oklahoma

By Sean Buckley

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Bolt Fiber Optic Services, Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative' s fiber to the home (FTTH) subsidiary, has tapped Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) to be its GPON vendor for its 1 Gbps network that will deliver a mix of data, third-party VoIP and TV services to rural northeastern Oklahoma residents.

The service provider said it will be able to support services for the 30,000 cooperative members that reside in a mix of rural communities, tribal areas and a lake resort area. Set to begin offering 1 Gbps service in the fourth quarter of 2014, Bolt will complete the rollout in April 2017.

For this project, Alcatel-Lucent is providing four key solutions: the 7360 Intelligent Services Access Manager, 5520 Access Management System, Triple Play Express and Video Systems Integration solutions.

In addition to providing necessary hardware and software, Alcatel-Lucent is serving as the systems integrator for the project, providing architecture, design, engineering and installation services and third-party solutions for the headend, OSS/BSS, fiber mapping and Mediaroom middleware and software for IPTV services.

Bolt is just one of many municipal FTTH deployments where Alcatel-Lucent has played a major role. It also serves as the GPON supplier for a number of U.S. and international players, including EPB Chattanooga, Bristol Tennessee Essential Services, Hong Kong Broadband Network and ZON Multimedia in Portugal.

Similar to other municipal broadband projects like Mass Broadband 123 and Leverett, Mass' FTTH proposal, the goal of the Bolt project is on economic development and attracting more people to the rural communities it serves.

"The population is going to continue to go away, the towns are going to continue to become ghost towns if we don't change the pattern and start bringing in some good paying jobs and technology and broadband is key to getting those jobs coming to northeast Oklahoma," said Sheila Allgood, RECtec manager and BOLT fiber optic services manager, in a video talking about the new network.

For more:
- see the release

5. C Spire adjusts requirements for Mississippi residents to its 1 Gbps FTTH service

By Sean Buckley

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