FairPoint Communications and the northern New England chapters of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) said they reached a tentative accord on new collective bargaining agreements. The sides set a Wednesday end-date for a monthslong strike of more than 1,700 of the telco's workers. The CWA- and IBEW-affiliated workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont have been on strike since October, when negotiations for a new contract broke down. The strike has since prompted complaints about FairPoint’s service quality in the three states and attracted scrutiny from members of the states’ congressional delegations and state officials. The company, CWA and IBEW had been in Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service-mediated negotiations since early January (see 1501020042, 1501050045 and 1501280062). FairPoint and the unions didn’t disclose details on the new agreements. The parties said in a joint Thursday news release that they “will address, in meaningful and constructive ways, the objectives of the parties and that the new labor agreements will provide employees with wages and benefits that are among the best in northern New England.” They said the new agreements will let the telco “achieve a much more competitive position in the marketplace." The 1,700 striking workers will need to vote on the pacts before they go into effect.

CenturyLink and Education Networks of America said they won’t end service to the Idaho Education Network broadband network on Sunday amid legislative efforts to provide funding to reimburse state schools that have to enter contracts with other vendors if the IEN shuts down. CenturyLink previously had threatened to end its service to IEN on Sunday if the state didn’t pay more than $1.5 million it owes for services rendered on the network. Idaho has been prohibited from paying CenturyLink and ENA for IEN services since state District Court Judge Patrick Owen ruled in November that the contract that established the network was illegal. Owen reaffirmed that ruling last week. Gov. Butch Otter, a Republican, had sought a rebid of the contract last month (see 1501130023). “Our primary focus is on the students of Idaho who have become dependent on these services,” CenturyLink said Thursday, saying it's still working with state officials to receive payment for the IEN services. The Idaho Legislature’s Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee refused to implement an emergency contract with CenturyLink and ENA Tuesday, choosing instead to recommend appropriating almost $3.6 million in temporary funding to reimburse schools that switch to other broadband providers for the remainder of the current fiscal year. The Idaho House voted 68-1 Thursday to approve the $3.6 million stopgap funding bill, sending it off for state Senate consideration.

NARUC's board voted to approve resolutions urging the FCC to give state agencies access to the commission's Network Outage Reporting System, and to continue giving states a role in 911 backup battery power and consumer protection issues included in the commission's IP transition NPRM. NARUC's Telecom Committee passed both resolutions unanimously Tuesday (see 1502170051). The Broadband Coalition praised NARUC for approving the IP transition resolution, saying it's "a sign that the FCC’s action on competition and the tech transition are in tune with the needs of local businesses who want a choice in broadband service."

Congress should enact his kill switch legislation, Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., said in a news release Friday. He applauded the decrease in smartphone thefts in London, New York and San Francisco. “These numbers prove that ‘kill switch’ technology is effective as a theft prevention mechanism and underscore why we need to keep pushing to ensure every smartphone has the tools available that consumers need to protect their device and private data,” Serrano said in a statement. He plans to reintroduce the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act, his spokeswoman told us earlier this year (see 1501140025). He had introduced HR-4065 last year, but it and its Senate companion never advanced.

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer recommended the commission approve Comcast’s proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable (TWC) with significant conditions. Proposed conditions released Friday include a requirement that Comcast expand the eligibility requirements for its Internet Essentials service to include all households in its service area in the state that have a household income equal to 150 percent of the federal poverty level and provide free Wi-Fi to Internet Essentials enrollees in the state. Comcast would also have to sign up 45 percent of eligible households in its service area in the state within two years unless it can show that penetration rates of eligible customers in those areas is less than 45 percent. Comcast would also need to offer stand-alone broadband service for five years after the deal closes, with that service having a specific price cap, the CPUC said. The commission will be able to consider the proposed decision as early as its March 26 meeting.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) sought FCC clarification Thursday of an FCC official’s statement to the media during a Feb. 2 news briefing that Pennsylvania was one of three states that currently have full bans on municipal broadband deployment. The FCC believes states that have full bans -- the FCC official said the others were Montana and Nebraska -- won’t be affected by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s draft order that would grant commission pre-emption of municipal broadband laws in North Carolina and Tennessee in response to petitions from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga and Wilson, North Carolina. The order would directly approve only the Chattanooga and Wilson petitions, but could set a precedent guiding how the FCC proceeds on future petitions (see 1502020037). “It is incorrect to group Pennsylvania with other states that may have statutorily instituted a ‘complete ban’ on the deployment of municipal broadband networks,” the PUC said in a filing. Pennsylvania’s municipal broadband law gives ILECs the right of first refusal when a municipality seeks to deploy broadband rather than completely banning such deployments, the PUC said. If the ILEC or an affiliate doesn’t agree within two months to provide broadband at speeds requested by a municipality, then the municipality is free to deploy broadband, the PUC said. State law also exempts municipal broadband networks and telcos that were in operation before Jan. 1, 2006, the PUC said in docket 14-116. The question of whether the Pennsylvania law "is or is not a flat ban is one that would be reviewed if there is a pre-emption petition coming out of" Pennsylvania, an FCC spokesman said.

Cablevision said it signed a collective bargaining agreement with 260 of its Communications Workers of America-affiliated workers in Brooklyn. The agreement follows a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge’s ruling in December that Cablevision and CEO James Dolan were guilty of violating several labor laws. The judge ruled Cablevision wasn't guilty of surface bargaining, saying the company had negotiated with CWA in good faith (see 1412050065). Cablevision didn’t disclose the terms of the agreement Friday, saying it still required ratification by the CWA-affiliated workers. “With this agreement, our focus in Brooklyn will continue to be providing the best connectivity and service to Cablevision customers,” Cablevision said. CWA Local 1109 President Tony Spina said in a statement that the union “looks forward to opening a new chapter in its relationship with Cablevision.”

Washington, D.C.'s Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) Department will soon stop using encrypted channels on its public safety radios for most operations, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office said Wednesday. “Starting in March, unencrypted channels will be used for all standard operations, while still maintaining encryption capabilities for events that contained sensitive communication,” City Administrator Rashad Young said in a news release. “These new protocols will ensure that DC FEMS can seamlessly communicate with their counterpart agencies from other jurisdictions while embracing encryption technology that will ensure the safety and security of residents and visitors during incidents deemed sensitive.” Bowser, a Democrat, began reviewing the change in December, before the start of her term, in response to concerns from fire chiefs in neighboring jurisdictions and other stakeholders that encryption might inhibit cross-agency communication. D.C. Firefighters Association President Ed Smith praised Bowser, in a statement, “for reversing a bad decision that was made by the prior administration.” Former D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, a Democrat, championed radio encryption in response to the fatal September 2013 shooting at the Washington Navy Yard military complex. FEMS and D.C.’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency have disputed claims by Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority officials that encryption caused radio connectivity problems for first responders involved in the Jan. 12 rescue of passengers from a smoke-filled tunnel outside of WMATA’s L’Enfant Plaza Metrorail station. The National Transportation Safety Board is still examining the radio communication problems as part of its ongoing investigation of that incident, in which one person died and 84 others went to D.C.-area hospitals. The dispute prompted scrutiny from Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and other D.C.-area members of Congress (see 1501230066 and 1502030055). WMATA and area fire departments met Wednesday to begin formalizing a process for coordinating communication on changes to agencies’ radio systems in response to Warner’s concerns about a lack of sufficient coordination, a WMATA spokesman said.

Seventy-five NTIA-funded broadband projects in the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) and State Broadband Initiative (SBI) remained in the process of completion as of June 30, NTIA said in a report released Tuesday. An additional 205 BTOP and SBI projects had finished their project activities by June 30, the agency said. The 75 BTOP/SBI projects “continued to exceed” goals for connecting subscribers and community institutions during the quarter that ended June 30 “and to make progress toward the miles goal,” NTIA said. The 20 active BTOP projects connected more than 400 additional community institutions during the quarter, bringing the total number of connected institutions to 25,300 -- ahead of the 23,000-institution goal set for fiscal year 2014, NTIA said. BTOP grantees also deployed or upgraded more than 400 additional network miles for a total of more than 112,700 miles of new or upgraded lines, the agency said. All four recipients of NTIA public safety project grants that subsequently executed spectrum lease agreements with FirstNet -- the Adams County Communications Center in Colorado, the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) and the states of New Jersey and New Mexico -- have resumed network design and construction activities, NTIA said. The agency had suspended all seven public safety grants it had awarded in 2010, before FirstNet’s creation, to allow FirstNet to evaluate them. Three of the grantees didn’t reach spectrum lease agreements with FirstNet -- the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, the state of Mississippi, and Motorola. The Adams County Communications Center completed 40 percent of its fiber work and completed LTE installation at six sites by the end of the quarter, NTIA said. LA-RICS made progress on planning and design work during the quarter, the agency said. New Jersey finalized statements of work for key components in its deployable network, NTIA said. New Mexico built 24 tower sites and identified seven LTE sites, along with working on a request for proposals for additional LTE buildout issues, NTIA said. Charlotte’s project was active at the end of the quarter but was moving forward with modifications that don’t require access to FirstNet spectrum, NTIA said. Mississippi and Motorola were in the process of closing out their awards, NTIA said.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said he disagrees with President Barack Obama’s backing of commission pre-emption of state municipal broadband laws. “State governments are in a much better position than Washington to weigh the potential costs and benefits” of municipal broadband,” Haslam, a Republican, said in a letter to the FCC posted Tuesday. The FCC is considering pre-emption petitions from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina, with most industry observers saying they expect the commission to approve both petitions at its Feb. 26 meeting. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, a Republican, urged the FCC not to grant the EPB petition, saying in a filing posted Friday that the state’s “interest in its control over municipal governments, including the extent to which those governments are given authority to provide utility services, must be respected.” Slatery and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper are expected to take the lead in any legal challenge of FCC pre-emption (see 1502020048). Congress hasn’t empowered the FCC to pre-empt state law on municipal broadband, and Telecom Act Section 706 “is not an ‘unmistakably clear’ mandate to preempt state law,” Slatery said. Pre-emption would leave the EPB in “limbo,” as it would still lack state authorization to provide expanded broadband service, Slatery said. “It would still need further legislative authorization to expand its service territory beyond existing geographical boundaries.” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson also expressed opposition to FCC pre-emption, saying in a filing posted Thursday that it “has no basis, either expressed or implied, in federal statutory law. It is, moreover, most likely unconstitutional as an infringement upon the State's police powers.”