The local number portability administration selection process “could cause substantial damage to the industry and consumers,” Michigan Internet & Telecommunications Alliance Executive Director John Liskey wrote the FCC Monday (http://bit.ly/NbQdoa). Citing a recent Standish Group report, Liskey said switching number portability vendors would cost the industry between $300 million and $600 million. “The report suggests the industry will not be able to recoup the costs within the five-year contract period, and the switch will increase costs and stifle innovation,” wrote Liskey. The selection process has not adequately considered the impact switching number portability vendors would have on small- and medium-sized vendors, he wrote. He worried the portability process has been a “closed one involving only a handful of carriers.” Other CLECs have expressed concern about the process. Comptel, Cbeyond, HyperCube and TDS Metrocom forwarded a letter to the FCC (http://bit.ly/1fPTdkN) that they had sent to North American Portability Management in November (CD Feb 10 p13).

Google Fiber invited 34 cities in nine metropolitan areas to explore the feasibility of bringing high-speed fiber service there, the company said on its blog (bit.ly/1e7MJZS). The company has been in touch with the mayors of the cities and will be working with them over the next few months, said a spokeswoman in an email to us. The metro areas are Atlanta, Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C., Nashville, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Salt Lake City, San Antonio and San Jose, the company said. It didn’t say how many cities may get the service, saying it will provide an update by the end of the year. It would be an expansion over Google Fiber projects underway in the Kansas City area, (CD Mar 21 p6), Austin, Texas (CD Apr 10 p10) and Provo, Utah (CD Aug 19 p5). The announcement was heralded by municipal broadband advocates, including the University Community Next Generation Innovation Project. It’s “a big, bold step forward to accelerate the deployment of next generation networks,” said Gig U. Executive Director Blair Levin in a statement. Google said it has asked the cities to provide a checklist of existing infrastructure, including maps of poles, conduits, and existing water, gas, and electricity lines to speed planning and construction. It also asked the cities to streamline permitting procedures. Google said it will begin studying factors that affect construction plans, including the cities’ topography, housing density and infrastructure, to scope out the costs and timelines for building a new fiber network. The announcement was also lauded by Ed Black, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association. “This follows a recent announcement that C Spire has its own plans for gigabit Internet access in three Mississippi communities that demonstrated the strongest interest,” he said. “As a raft of recent economic studies have illustrated, these new networks will be a boon not only to the cities served by these high-speed offerings but also the public at large who will benefit from new pockets of digital innovation and creativity."

Three Mississippi communities pre-registered enough homeowners to qualify for C Spire’s 1 Gbps fiber-to-the-home broadband service. The company will now start engineering and construction of the service in parts of Horn Lake and Starkville, and the entire town of Quitman, said C Spire in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1oNq0uY). The three communities had been among nine selected by C Spire as finalists for the service, spurring drives by local government, community and business leaders to get people to pre-register with a $10 refundable deposit. The six other communities will continue their pre-registration drives, the company said. The cost to C Spire customers will be $70 a month for Internet access, $90 a month for combined Internet and home phone, $130 a month for Internet and digital TV, and $150 a month all three services. The company plans to begin the service by summer.

Comporium began designing a fiber network for the new downtown Rock Hill, S.C., development known as “Knowledge Park.” Named Zipstream, the service will provide Internet speeds up to 1 Gbps by summer, said the company in a news release Tuesday. It said that area will be one of the first two so-called gigabit communities in South Carolina. Zipstream will cost $99 per month for consumers and $299 monthly for companies.

"Dig once” policies are the most powerful, cost-effective means communities can take to encourage fiber companies to build private local networks, wrote CTC Technology & Energy President Joanne Hovis on the Google Fiber blog (http://bit.ly/1iPC1fN). The immediate past president of NATOA said digging up streets to put fiber underground or installing new utility poles is one of the biggest costs for private companies building fiber networks. But under a “dig once” policy, cities can install fiber conduits or fiber bundles every time they have to tear up a street for road or utility work, wrote Hovis. They can then make the conduits or bundles available to companies and nonprofits which want to build networks, she wrote. “Not only is this an attractive option to providers who save the time and expense of digging, but it has the added benefit of reducing future disruption for local citizens (who probably don’t want to deal with a future road closure if it can be avoided).” Hovis recommended surveying where existing utilizes are, so network providers don’t have to do the work themselves. She said cities and counties could create a streamlined standard permitting process for network providers.

Frontier’s purchase of AT&T’s wireline assets in Connecticut would lead to “numerous public interest benefits” and “increased competition,” Frontier told FCC Wireline Bureau, International Bureau and Office of General Counsel officials Thursday, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1ctBD1p). Frontier has no local exchange, broadband or video operations in Connecticut, but after the transaction it “will compete with the wireless, enterprise and CLEC operations that AT&T will retain in the state,” the telco said in an attached presentation. State customers will benefit from deepened community involvement and increased employment, Frontier said. Frontier will also “be a stronger carrier nationwide,” as the transaction will improve its “overall financial flexibility and stability,” and will ensure that Frontier has the ability to increase broadband investment and penetration over the long term, it said.

Correction: The name of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission chairwoman is Beverly Jones Heydinger (CD Feb 11 p9).

California State Sen. Mark Leno (D) introduced legislation Friday that would require all smartphones and tablets sold in the state after Jan. 1, 2015, to include a “kill switch” that would make a smartphone inoperable if not in its rightful owner’s possession. Leno said in a news release that he was introducing the bill in response to what he called an “all-time high” of smartphone-related robberies in California. More than 50 percent of all robberies in San Francisco involve smartphone theft, while one-third of all robberies nationwide involve smartphone theft, Leno’s office said. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón praised the bill, saying in a statement that “the wireless industry must take action to end the victimization of its customers.” The bill would require wireless carriers and retailers to sell mobile devices with the kill switch enabled, but would allow a consumer to opt out of the technology after purchasing the device. Wireless carriers would be prohibited from “using wireless contracts to encourage consumers to disable the kill switch,” Leno’s office said. The California State Senate is set to consider SB 962 in late spring (http://bit.ly/1jkSRpD).

Frontier Communications filed applications with the FCC and Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority on Friday to acquire AT&T’s wireline, broadband and video operations in Connecticut. Frontier also filed an application with the Justice Department under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act on Monday, seeking approval for the acquisitions, said a news release Monday from Frontier (http://bit.ly/1g27oBm). Frontier agreed in December to pay $2 billion in the deal. Consumer advocates have said they would seek to ensure consumers have high quality of service (CD Jan 2 p1).

Strong opposition from municipalities helped postpone a Kansas bill that would bar municipalities from creating their own networks (CD Feb 4 p12), said Larry Gates, utilities director for the city of Chanute. “There were a lot of emails, a lot of press, a lot of stuff on Facebook and Twitter, a huge campaign from all sizes of municipalities,” said Gates, a strong critic of SB-304, in an interview Monday. Backers of the bill denied the impetus was Google’s move to build local networks in the state, but Gates doesn’t buy it. “It was all about Google,” he said. Google had no immediate comment.