An administrative law judge proposed the California Public Utilities Commission approve Frontier Communications' buy of Verizon's wireline system in the state subject to conditions and related settlements with various groups. Among the conditions in the ALJ's 82-page proposed decision (PD): Frontier "shall offer broadband connectivity to all Lifeline-eligible Verizon California, Inc., customers at the rate and on the terms contained in its Memorandum of Understanding with the California Emerging Technologies Fund," and "Prior to the closing date of the Transaction, Verizon California, Inc., shall repair all known General Order (GO) 95 non-conformances within its California service territory or, to the extent completion of all repairs within that time period is impossible, shall at the closing date escrow with the Commission in accordance with the terms of this decision the balance of funds necessary to complete the repairs." The PD will appear on the CPUC's Dec. 3 agenda, said an attachment, which noted the commission could act then or postpone a vote. A Frontier statement called the proposal "favorable," and noted the company had already received Department of Justice antitrust clearance and FCC approval of its planned purchase of wireline systems in California, Florida and Texas (see 1509030063). It said it expected to close the transaction by the end of Q1. In a Friday statement, Kathleen Abernathy, executive vice president-external affairs, said Frontier was pleased the proposed decision says its proposed settlements with the Office of Ratepayer Advocates, The Utility Rate Network, Center for Accessible Technology, California Emerging Technology Fund, Greenlining and others "address the public interest requirements to be considered by the Commission. ... We will continue to work through any remaining issues raised in the PD and address them in our comments, which are due in a few weeks."

FirstNet quietly sent letters to all U.S. states, D.C. and several territories in mid-October requesting a meeting with their leaders and clarifying information about opting in to the network, revenue usage and details about the use of the network itself. In the letter sent to New York, FirstNet said the "financial, operational and contractual risk of the network buildout and operations within New York would be the responsibility of FirstNet and its partner(s)." No revenue can be redistributed in the state for any other uses, the letter said. There is also no requirement that any public safety organization use the network once it's built, the letter said. While many reports have focused on the revenue issue the letter mentioned, that isn't new, having been discussed at the October board meeting (see [Ref:1510020045]). The information about how states must reinvest all resulting revenue from their own radio access networks back into the nationwide network was a part of Resolution 69, which was approved at the meeting. "The correspondence was an important next step in our consultation with the states and territories now that we have completed the initial round of consultation meetings with them," a FirstNet spokesman said.

The FCC requested oral argument in the municipal broadband pre-emption cases Tennessee v. FCC and North Carolina v. FCC (Nos. 15-3291/15-3555). Also filing Thursday in the same dockets, the Department of Justice officially took no position in the case. Letters sent to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in August 2014 by North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis and North Carolina state Rep. Marilyn Avila were added to the docket in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Both letters assert the need to have a law like the North Carolina "Level Playing Field Law" to protect consumers from "poor local government financial decision making," Tillis said. "To rule that the North Carolina General Assembly is powerless to prevent such a result brings Chief Justice John Roberts' warnings regarding the 'growing power of the administrative state' to mind."

Twelve people were arrested in connection with the alleged theft of underground copper cable in south and central Florida, said a news release Tuesday from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. FDLE officials said the thefts made communications infrastructure vulnerable to failure, with at least one theft damaging adjacent fiber cables that carry 911 communications. The investigation began in October 2014 after a request from Florida Power and Light, the release said. After allegedly stealing the copper cable, the suspects sold the copper to metal recycling facilities across Miami-Dade, it said.

Colorado voters in 43 municipalities approved ballot measures to opt out of the state's restrictive broadband law that prevents municipalities from creating public/private partnerships to build out fiber (see 1510300041), said the Institute for Local Self Reliance. ILSR said Colorado Mountain College also asked six municipalities to allow the school to provide its own Internet if necessary, and they all passed the measure. Last year, nine municipalities passed similar ballot measures, ILSR said.

A bill that would create the Next Generation Network Initiative Grant Fund to help municipalities move broadband deployment forward was introduced in the Massachusetts House Joint Telecom, Utilities and Energy Committee Tuesday. HB-2854 would issue grants to cities for research and planning to develop gigabit-speed networks throughout Massachusetts. The funds from Next Generation Network also would be used to evaluate municipal broadband offerings and research the entrance of private market players that are committed to providing next generation broadband services, the bill said. Funds would also be able to be used to match other public and private funding sources. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Evandro Carvalho (D).

Many cities are investing in Wi-Fi, said a study released Tuesday. The Wireless Broadband Alliance white paper by its Connected City Advisory Board said more than 75 percent of respondents, spanning 44 cities over 6 continents, plan to invest in Wi-Fi. Cities need to address the lack of expertise in developing and deploying citywide Wi-Fi, how to manage public expectations and user experience and the choice of technology to use, the board said. It was formed in July and is made up of chief information officers from cities such as Barcelona, Calgary, Dublin, Liverpool, Mexico City, New York, Singapore, San Francisco, San Jose and the governments of Delhi and the Philippines.

The Highlands Fiber Network lowered the price of its gigabit Internet service, which it has offered since 2011, from nearly $200 to $70 a month because there's such demand for faster fiber, HFN said in a news release. The Seattle-based fiber Internet company serves the Issaquah Highlands community.

A portion of money from universal service support should be invested in middle-mile infrastructure to be owned and operated by a neutral administrator, Alaska Communications Systems said an ex parte FCC filing posted Monday in docket 10-90. ACS responded to a joint letter filed in the docket by the Alaska Telecommunications Association (ATA) and member company General Communication Inc. (GCI). With populations ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred, it would be "simply impossible" to deliver to some Alaskan communities services that are at an affordable and reasonable rate and that are comparable to the already existing ones in more densely populated areas of the state, ACS said. The proposal from ATA and GCI is, at best, incomplete, ACS said. To close the broadband gap in the Alaskan bush, the FCC needs to take "bolder action" than just preserving the status quo support flows to eligible telecom carriers, ACS said. Whatever approach the FCC takes needs to relieve the shortage of available, affordable middle-mile options that don't exist in the Alaskan bush today, ACS said.

The nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN) could improve interoperability, capacity and reliability of public safety responses in states like Pennsylvania in cases of blizzards, gas explosions, riots, manhunts and hurricanes, a FirstNet blog post said Monday. Pennsylvania Statewide Interoperability Coordinator Mark Wrightstone earlier this year said the state's land mobile radio system, PA-StarNet -- which is used by more than two dozen agencies in Pennsylvania -- allows both voice and data traffic, uses 800 MHz trunked digital technology and services more than 25,000 subscriber devices, the post said. Wrightstone said that PA-StarNet has “extensive experience” with interoperable public safety communications, making it “ideally suited to coordinate Pennsylvania’s response to the federal FirstNet program and its mission to improve radio communications for first responders.”