The FCC should take a limited approach to cable effective competition and seek only to streamline the current process, said Steve Traylor, NATOA executive director, in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-53. If the commission adopts its proposed rule, it should take steps to streamline the process for affected local franchising authorities that want to regain their rate regulation authority, Traylor said he told Maria Kirby, media aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. Traylor echoed another NATOA filing posted Monday, saying the commission should affirmatively state that the elimination of rate regulation of the basic tier of service on a nationwide level doesn't give cable operators authority to unilaterally move public, educational and governmental channels off the basic tier (see 1505190054)

CenturyLink's 1 Gbps fiber service is available in more than 115,000 additional U.S. business locations and in five additional states, it said in a Monday news release. That brings the total small- and mid-sized businesses with access to the network to nearly 490,000 locations in 17 states, CenturyLink said, saying it provides 1 Gbps speeds to residential customers in 11 cities, including Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis and Salt Lake City.

Records are due June 22 in North Carolina v. FCC in docket 15-1506 before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said the court in a briefing order. The appendix and opening brief are due June 22 and the response brief is due July 24, it said. The reply brief is permitted within 14 days of service of the response brief, the order said. North Carolina had filed a petition for a review with the 4th Circuit on the FCC decision to pre-empt the state's municipal broadband laws (see 1505150043).

FairPoint Communications is restructuring and will eliminate 260 positions across 17 states, including closing a call center in South Burlington, Vermont, the telco said in a news release Friday. "Combined with other headcount reductions over the past two years," the cut "approximates the level of voice line loss the company has experienced" in that time, it said. "Access lines and legacy revenues are in secular decline," CEO Paul Sunu said.

Mesa, Arizona, requested more time from the FCC to reprogram the city’s deployable trunked system to the newly assigned former reserve channels as directed by a Jan. 9 public notice in docket 13-87. The extension will "allow the new channel pairs to be added to these radios on the next preventive maintenance cycle, thereby removing the additional expense of having to add them prior to June 2, 2015," said the city. It requested the extension be granted within six months after the new channel pairs are adopted by the Region 3 Planning Committee and the plan is approved by the commission.

The CTIA supports California Assembly bill 57 because it would create "needed certainty in the process of constructing and updating wireless infrastructure" in California, said the organization in a letter to the Assembly Local Government Committee. The bill lets local governments retain full authority to review or deny a wireless facility application as they see fit, the association said May 5. The bill prevents local government inaction from standing in the way of public access to wireless communications, said CTIA. The law aligns California with FCC 2009 "shot clock" rules, it said.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a district court's decision to deny Smith Communications' application to build a cell tower in Washington County, Arkansas, said a decision filed Tuesday.

Consumer Watchdog wrote Google CEO Larry Page and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt Monday, asking the company to release the accident reports filed with the California Department of Motor Vehicles for its driverless cars and to “commit to making public all future driverless car accident reports.” Google’s robot cars have been involved in accidents, but the DMV treats driverless car accident reports confidentially and doesn’t release them in response to a Public Records Act request, the group said in a news release. Consumer Watchdog Privacy Project Director John Simpson wrote in the letter that it’s important the public know what happened because Google is “testing driverless vehicles on public highways, quite possibly putting other drivers at risk.” Google plans to offer robot cars “without a steering wheel, brake pedal or accelerator,” which would make it impossible for a person to take control in an emergency, Simpson said in the news release. Consumer Watchdog also asked Google to release reports on when the robot technology was disengaged and a test driver assumed control over the vehicle. “Google has engaged in a highly visible public relations campaign extolling the supposed virtues of driverless cars,” the letter said. “It is incumbent upon you to be candid about the cars’ failings and shortcomings as well.” Google didn't comment.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Friday issued a ruling that phone service provided by a cable company is a telecommunications service subject to state oversight, a release from the commission said. An investigation determined that in March 2013 Charter Fiberlink Companies transferred all of its more than 100,000 Minnesota voice phone customers to an affiliate, Charter Advanced Services Companies, which provided VoIP phone service that was not certified by the state, the commission said. Charter did not notify or seek approval from the PUC, it said. After the transfer, Charter also stopped complying with two state programs designed to support universal phone access for disabled and low-income Minnesotans, the commission said. The commission’s decision does not apply to computer-to-computer communications nor services like Skype or FaceTime that do not travel on the public switched telephone network. “This unanimous ruling is a major victory to protect people,” said Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman in the release. “Phone companies cannot gain unfair advantage and evade their responsibility to deliver fundamental services, especially for disabled and low-income Minnesotans who depend on it.” Charter claimed in the proceeding that federal law pre-empted state jurisdiction, the release said. However, several commissioners specifically pointed out that neither the courts nor the FCC has established exclusive federal authority over this kind of phone service, it said.

Alaska Communications and Quintillion Holdings acquired a fiber network from ConocoPhillips in the portion of Alaska’s North Slope oil patch where most new development is occurring, said a Thursday news release from Alaska Communications. The release said Alaska Communications established a multiyear service agreement with ConocoPhillips. The network will enable commercially available, high-speed connectivity where only high-cost microwave and satellite communications have been available, it said.