Seattle selected Rave Mobile Safety's Alert Emergency Notification System as its emergency mass notification system, said a news release from the company. AlertSeattle lets residents and city employees receive important emergency and community updates, by email, text, voice call, and on social media, the firm said. The tight integration between AlertSeattle and King County's Smart911 system allows residents to opt to provide critical information they wish to make available to responders in the event of a 911 call, it said.

The Wayne County, New York, 911 Communications Center selected Intergraph for dispatch, records management, mobility and integration services, the company said in a news release Monday.

The Community Technology Advisory Board for Seattle endorses the proposed modernization of the Lifeline program with conditions, said a letter from the board in response to the FCC public notice: Lifeline and Link Up Reform and Modernization, in docket 11-42. Despite agreeing with the addition of the coverage of broadband under the program, the board believes there should be one Lifeline broadband subsidy and one Lifeline phone subsidy per household, not one or the other, it said. It also recommended that voicemail, call waiting, national long distance, at least 250 text messages each month, 500 minutes of calling, and low-cost data plans be included in all Lifeline plans.

Twelve public safety answering points (PSAPs) in the nine-county Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area regional 911 system supported by the Metropolitan Emergency Services Board selected Airbus DS Communications to upgrade their technology to the latest Vesta 911 system, said a news release from Airbus. Allina EMS, Carver County, Dakota County, City of Edina, Hennepin County, City of Minneapolis, Ramsey County and Scott County are among the PSAPs taking the first steps to build a regional next-generation 911 system, it said.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision and remanded Sprint's appeal of the U.S. District Court in Des Moines' ruling that dismissed its complaints against the Iowa Utility Board, said a decision issued Friday. Sprint argued that fees it was required to pay Windstream for unpaid state access charges for VoIP calls fell under information calls, so they weren't subject to regulations. The IUB said the calls fell under telecom services and were, in fact, subject to state regulations. The companies had no immediate comment Friday.

Charter Communications' planned buy of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable would help the newly formed New Charter in promoting diversity, said an ex parte filing from the California Hawaii State Conference of the NAACP in FCC docket 15-149. New Charter would be able to emphasize progressive inclusion practices and ensure access to independently owned and minority-focused programming, the letter said. The deals would also promote better relations within many minority groups, it said.

TDS Telecom joined Adtran's Enabling Communities, Connecting Lives program, a news release from Adtran said Thursday. TDS provides high-speed Internet, phone and TV entertainment services in more than 150 rural, suburban and metropolitan areas, Adtran said. The company is using Adtran's gigabit services platform for its TDS Fiberville Fiber-to-the-Home service within selected New Hampshire communities, Adtran said. The Enabling Communities, Connecting Lives program shows how innovative technologies are being used in cities, towns and communities across the country to support economic growth and urban development, it said. It said earlier this week it had activated broadband services to 200 communities (see 1508120033).

The number of information technology job postings by Illinois employers jumped nearly 90 percent in Q2 over the year-ago period, said a news release Wednesday from CompTIA. Illinois employers posted 53,388 IT job openings, vs. 28,312 in Q2 2014, said the group. The large majority of jobs posted were in the Chicago metropolitan area, it said. Illinois ranks eighth among states in overall tech employment; fourth in the number of tech establishments; and fourth in the number of Q2 IT job postings, CompTIA said.

Adtran has enabled Gigabit broadband services to more than 200 communities as part of its Enabling Communities, Connecting Lives program, it said in a Tuesday news release. Adtran said it is helping service providers, cable operators, municipalities and rural carriers deploy broadband service that can be a game-changer for community revitalization.

Verizon Wireless signed on to participate in phases 4 and 5 of the build-out of the Transit Wireless network that will provide cellular and Wi-Fi service to the subway in New York City, said a Tuesday news release from Transit Wireless. All four major wireless carriers have been working with Transit Wireless on the project that will cover 279 underground stations with 6 million riders per day across the boroughs of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, the release said. Verizon service is in 63 stations and it will connect the remaining stations in phase 3 by the end of the summer, Transit said. Phase 4 of the network buildout, which began construction in March, is connecting 37 Manhattan and Bronx stations, the release said. Phase 5, which is scheduled to start construction late this year, will comprise 37 Manhattan stations, it said.