The FCC is going to “rue the day” it chose to exercise its Telecom Act Section 706 authority in the way described in its municipal broadband pre-emption order, NetCompetition Chairman Scott Cleland said Friday during a Broadband US webcast. The agency relied heavily on Section 706 in the order it released Thursday granting petitions from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina, to pre-empt North Carolina and Tennessee state laws that contain restrictions on municipal broadband deployments (see 1503120060). The commission interpretation of Section 706 relies too heavily on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s reading of the statute in its Verizon v. FCC ruling, Cleland said, calling the interpretation a grant of “balsa wood authority.” Cleland and other industry observers who spoke during the webcast said the order is likely to face legal challenges, with Cleland saying it is destined to end up before the Supreme Court. Baller Herbst lawyer Jim Baller, who represented EPB and Wilson in the FCC petitions, disputed claims that the order explicitly states that the commission doesn’t have authority to pre-empt state laws that institute a flat ban on municipal broadband deployments. CenturyLink Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Jeff Lanning said the order acknowledges that distinction. The FCC is “making it very clear” that it will rule against any petition that seeks pre-emption of a flat ban, Lanning said.

The California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) and its partners called on Comcast Thursday to pledge to meet requirements in the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) proposed decision on the Comcast/Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal that would require Comcast to reach 45 percent of all eligible low-income residents in its post-merger territory in the state with its low-cost Internet Essentials broadband program. The CPUC wants to require Comcast to spend $275 per household on outreach, digital literacy training and assistance in enrolling in Internet Essentials. Comcast has said those requirements are unrealistic, while CETF said it believes those requirements are doable. “CETF and our partners call on Comcast to join an effective public-private partnership to close the Digital Divide in California, and we stand ready to work with Comcast and all interested community-based organizations,” CETF President Sunne McPeak said in a statement. “There is no substitute for the innovation and efficiency of the private sector when engaged as sincere partners motivated to achieve explicit goals. Effective public-private partnerships can significantly leverage public benefit resources for a higher return on investment to taxpayers and ratepayers.” A Comcast spokeswoman said the company "is proud of our network of thousands" of community participants in building the Internet Essentials program. "We welcome CETF's continued participation in our program, but if they prefer a different program, they are certainly free to create their own program independent of Internet Essentials and join our fight to connect low income Californians to the Internet," the Comcast spokeswoamn said. The CPUC is currently set to vote on the proposed Comcast/TWC decision March 26.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) “plans to sign” HB-389, which would ban drivers in the state from writing, sending or reading messages on a mobile device while behind the wheel, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. The state Senate voted 49-3 Monday to approve the bill, which would institute a $25 fine for offenses committed through July 1, 2016. The fine would rise to $100 per offense after that date. The state has a ban on texting for drivers under the age of 18 but is otherwise one of six states that don't have blanket bans on the practice.

The Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation said Sunday it supports a legislative push by state House Assistant Majority Leader Kevin Brooks and state Sen. Janice Bowling to ease restrictions in the state’s municipal broadband law by allowing municipalities operating an electric utility to provide utility services, including broadband, outside their electric system service area. The group said its members are located primarily in rural areas of Tennessee that have sparse broadband connectivity. Brooks said he and Bowling, both Republicans, are hoping the FCC Feb. 26 vote to grant a pre-emption petition from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga will help the chances of their bills -- HB-1303 and SB-1134 -- during the current legislative session (see 1502270048). The legislature is slated to adjourn April 17.

Three additional neighborhoods in Ridgeland, Mississippi, exceeded C Spire registration requirements for deploying residential gigabit service, the company said Friday. The city’s Montrachet, Muirwood and Camden Park neighborhoods now qualify for gigabit service, joining the already qualified Bridgewater, Old Agency East, Highland Colony North, Birdlanes and Ann Smith neighborhoods, C Spire said. The company first activated gigabit service in Ridgeland in November (see 1411130046).

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear’s office confirmed he hadn’t signed HB-152 by our deadline Friday but said he intends to do so. The bill, which would significantly reduce the Kentucky Public Service Commission’s authority to regulate wireline service and would end its oversight of consumers’ broadband and wireless complaints, passed the state Senate 30-3 March 2. The House approved the bill Feb. 24 on a 71-25 vote (see 1502250022). Beshear, a Democrat, already had indicated he'll sign the bill, which also would allow major telcos to end traditional wireline service in jurisdictions with more than 15,000 households provided the FCC clears the conversion to an all-wireless or VoIP replacement. The PSC would retain full jurisdiction over wholesale issues, carrier-to-carrier issues and anti-competitive telecom practices.

Media Alliance urged opponents of the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal to speak against the merger during the California Public Utilities Commission’s March 12 meeting. The meeting is the last open CPUC session before the commission’s planned March 26 vote on its review of the deal. Media Alliance Executive Director Tracy Rosenberg was one of several public interest advocates who urged the CPUC to reject the deal during an all-party meeting Feb. 25 (see 1502260060). Several community representatives spoke in favor of Comcast/TWC during a public comment period before parties in the review presented their arguments, which Media Alliance said Tuesday was a Comcast-orchestrated demonstration. “We must turn around the parade of Comcast-funded cheerleaders and make sure the Commission hears from real people not on Comcast's payroll,” Media Alliance said.

The Johnston County, North Carolina, 911 Emergency Communications department said it successfully tested an Intrado-developed LTE backup 911 call routing option to connect callers with the county’s public safety answering points (PSAPs). The 911 call routing alternative provides additional reliability to Johnston County’s 911 system, including its recently deployed Next-Generation 911 network capabilities, the department said Wednesday. “The traditional weak link in terrestrial networks is the 'last mile' between the telephone company and our PSAPs,” said department Director Jason Barbour in a news release. “This solution gives us yet another path to receive those calls in the unlikely event that both our primary and backup routes are unavailable.”

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau said it selected the Helen Keller National Center (HKNC) for Deaf-Blind Youth and Adults to operate the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program (NDBEDP) for Hawaii. The NDBEDP provides up to $10 million in annual funding for the distribution of communications equipment to deaf-blind individuals who are considered low income, the FCC said Tuesday. The HKNC replaces Island Skill Gathering as Hawaii’s designated NDBEDP program operator, the FCC said. The commission mandated in 2011 that one entity per state could receive support through NDBEDP. The HKNC will “work in partnership with local agencies to meet the needs of the deaf-blind population throughout Hawaii,” the FCC said. The center operates NDBEDP programs in Iowa and New York, along with 14 other states’ programs in partnership with the Perkins School for the Blind, the FCC said.

The FCC 911 governance and accountability rulemaking’s desired transparency and situational awareness goals “may be able to be reasonably achieved without being overly cost-prohibitive or unduly burdensome,” Texas 911 officials told Public Safety Bureau officials during a meeting Wednesday. Texas Commission on State Emergency Communications General Counsel Patrick Tyler and Richard Muscat, Bexar Metro 9-1-1 Network District director-regulatory affairs, met with Deputy Chief David Furth and other bureau staff members to discuss potential benefits from additional communication and collaboration among 911 stakeholders to “enable more detailed review and consideration of issues and potential optimal alternatives,” the Texas officials said in an ex parte notice posted Monday. The bureau is accepting comments on an NPRM, in dockets 13-75 and 14-193, through March 9. Replies are due April 7. The Texas officials said more-detailed contingency plans filed with the FCC “might provide a coherent picture of relevant 9-1-1 information in a transparent manner.” Updates to those plans could be coordinated with notices of “material changes” similar to the notices the FCC uses to notify competitors about changes to LECs that might affect competitors, with any updates that go beyond minimum transparency requirements potentially benefiting all stakeholders, the Texas officials said. This approach to contingency plans "might be preferable to including within new FCC rule requirements at this time subcontractors, operating system suppliers and/or system integrators responsible for certain functions," the officials said. The IP transition and the shift to next-generation 911 technology “is still in the early stages,” with areas that have transitioned to NG-911 and IP technologies usually still needing to address “wholesale” 911 interconnection and competitive carrier issues included in the FCC’s local competition order, the Texas officials said. There may be potential opportunities for more “voluntary cooperation” on 911 transparency and situational awareness given that most areas are still in early stages of implementing NG-911 and IP technologies, the officials said.