The detonated implosion of the first of two Riviera Las Vegas hotel towers looms in mid-June, and that will set into motion the first stage of an ambitious plan for much of the next decade to renovate and expand the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) in a much-needed "overhaul." So said Terry Jicinsky, senior vice president-operations at the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), in a recent interview. The project's long-term benefits for CES -- LVCVA's largest annual customer -- are uncertain, said CTA's top CES strategist. Karen Chupka, CTA senior vice president-CES and corporate business strategy, told us “we’re one of the few shows that’s using all three convention centers,” of the CES exhibit space at the Venetian-Sands and Mandalay Bay, in addition to LVCC. “As we even are starting to look now for 2018 and 2019, there isn’t additional exhibit space to grow,” she said. Other conferences in the communications area held in Las Vegas include the NAB Show; NAB said attendance at last month's convention topped 103,000 (see 1604210070).
The Lifeline order OK'd by FCC members 3-2 won praise from New York's Bill de Blasio and 37 other mayors. The FCC released all 224 pages of the Lifeline order last week (see 1604270028). De Blasio and mayors from Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and elsewhere sent a glowing letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler Thursday. “We write to applaud your leadership in modernizing and reforming the Lifeline program to include affordable broadband Internet service to benefit millions of low-income households,” the mayors wrote. “As leaders in local government, representing communities large and small, the modernized Lifeline program has tremendous potential to improve the lives of our low-income residents and enhance the long-term prospects for our cities as a whole. We are committed to working with you in support of this important action, and in partnership through the implementation process.” The mayors urged the FCC to design “a structure that will allow and encourage aggregation of subsidies to support deployment at public housing developments,” which they said “would complement local efforts by creating a robust and dependable funding stream for service costs.” While the local leaders praised the Lifeline order, states have railed against it, saying it flies in the face of federal statute and could be unlawful (see 1604010042).
A person who hacks into a vehicle could be sentenced to life in prison, under a bill introduced in the Michigan legislature Thursday. The bill, introduced by State Sen. Mike Kowall (R), could have implications for connected vehicles and self-driving cars. In one section, SB-927 says, “A person shall not intentionally access or cause access to be made to an electronic system of a motor vehicle to willfully destroy, damage, impair, alter, or gain unauthorized control of the motor vehicle.” A person who violates that section “is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for life or any term of years.” The bill also includes varying punishments for other hacking crimes. The legislation was referred to the Judiciary Committee in the state Senate.
NTIA released a guide to planning a community broadband strategy. An effective broadband road map “contains a community’s strategic vision and goals, analyzes existing community resources and needs, and guides the tactical plans to realize this vision,” NTIA said in a blog post Thursday. “An effective roadmap will also identify potential collaborations that can lead to additional businesses, programs and economic growth.” The guide includes nine case studies from states, counties, tribes, municipalities and nongovernment organizations. It was released through NTIA’s BroadbandUSA program, which provides technical assistance, guidance and resources to communities seeking to expand broadband. The agency said it next plans to release guides on forming broadband partnerships, implementing infrastructure projects and sustaining broadband networks.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman proposed state legislation to add teeth to New York’s prohibition on ticket bots, illegal software used to quickly buy tickets on websites like Ticketmaster and resell them at a premium. Because of the bots, events sell out quickly even though tickets have not been purchased by real people. Ticket bots are already illegal under New York’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Law, and earlier this week the AG won a $2.6 million settlement against five ticket brokers that used bots (see 1604270007). Schneiderman’s office said it “has found, however, that the use of ticket bots is widespread, and that the law should be strengthened to further deter their use.” Schneiderman proposed expanding the law’s scope to include additional types of ticket bots, prohibiting professional ticket resellers from selling or offering to sell tickets that they know have been illegally acquired using ticket bots, increasing the civil penalties for violations of the law, and making the use of ticket bots a criminal offense. “For too long, unscrupulous ticket brokers have used illegal bots to scoop up tickets for popular events, denying ordinary fans the chance to buy tickets at face value,” Schneiderman said. “By strengthening New York’s anti-ticket bot law, this bill will give fans a fairer shot at purchasing tickets to see their favorite performers.” While Schneiderman himself cannot introduce the bill, the office expects the bills to be assigned to members in each house of the New York State Legislature in the coming weeks.
Bringing affordable multigigabit Internet service to community anchor institutions must get renewed focus, said the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, releasing a "Vision" paper Wednesday that kicked off an action plan for a Grow 2 Gig+ campaign. The paper said 63 percent of schools don't meet current high-speed connectivity goals, 42 percent of public libraries have Internet access of 10 Mbps or slower and rural health clinics often lag their urban counterparts in broadband capacity. “The National Broadband Plan called for gigabit speeds for all anchor institutions by the year 2020, but we are in grave danger of failing to meet that goal,” said SHLB Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen in a release. “Our anchor institutions hold communities together; they provide essential Internet connectivity to our children, the elderly, the poor, and everyone." In a preface to the Vision paper, he said, "The Action Plan will provide a series of policy papers, each of which addresses a barrier to achieving this envisioned future and recommends a range of steps that policymakers can take to make it a reality." The SHLB effort "puts 'meat on the bones' of Goal #4 in the National Broadband Plan, to bring gigabit connectivity to anchor institutions across the country," said Blair Levin, who spearheaded the NBP at the FCC, in a foreword to the paper. The SHLB coalition welcomed a scheduled FCC vote Thursday seeking to curb "excessive pricing" for business data services, "an action that could lower prices and speed the deployment of high speed broadband to millions of schools, libraries and health care providers."
The New York Attorney General won a $2.76 million settlement against companies that used illegal bots to buy large numbers of tickets online and then resell them on popular ticket resale websites. The settlement amount includes disgorged profits and penalties, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a news release Wednesday. Six companies -- All Events of Utah, A2Z Tix of New York, Charm City Entertainment of Florida, Flying Falco Entertainment of California, Just In Time Tickets of New York and TicketToad.com of New Jersey -- illegally sold tickets to events in New York over the past several years without first obtaining the required license, the AG said. All of the companies except Charm City also violated New York’s ticket laws by using illegal software, known as ticket bots, to buy large numbers of tickets on websites such as Ticketmaster.com before the tickets could be obtained by consumers, the AG said. “Our office has zero tolerance for ticket resellers that use illegal bots to scoop up large numbers of tickets for popular events before consumers can obtain them, and then resell those tickets to those very same consumers at a large markup,” Schneiderman said.
Wawa customers can get free in-store Wi-Fi from Comcast, under a partnership they announced in a news release Tuesday. The regional convenience store chain and Comcast Business switched on Xfinity Wi-Fi hot spots Tuesday in more than 700 stores in Delaware, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, the companies said. Unlike most Comcast Xfinity hot spots, users need not be Comcast customers to access free Wi-Fi, they said. Comcast has rolled out more than 14 million Xfinity Wi-Fi hot spots across its territory.
The Louisiana House unanimously passed a telehealth bill to remove the requirement that physicians be located within the state. The House voted 91-0 Wednesday to pass HB-570, two days after the state Senate passed a similar bill, SB-328. The legislature has until June 6 adjournment to agree on which bill to move forward. Teladoc supported both versions of the bill for removing the residency restriction and for being technology neutral (see 1604190011). The Alaska Legislature removed its own in-state restriction for telehealth last week (see 1604180054). State legislation on telehealth has ramped up year after year, said a Center for Connected Health Policy (CCHP) annual report released Thursday. “In the 2016 legislative session, forty-four states have introduced over 150 telehealth-related pieces of legislation,” it said. “Many bills address different aspects of reimbursement in regards to both private payers and Medicaid, with some bills making changes to existing reimbursement laws. Many states have also proposed legislation that would adopt the Federation of State Medical Board’s model language for an Interstate Medical Licensure Compact.” Some states continue to restrict and limit telehealth services, CCHP said. “No two states are alike in how telehealth is defined and regulated.” CCHP said 47 states have some form of reimbursement for telehealth, but Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Utah don't. The most commonly reimbursed form of telehealth is live video, it said. “However, what and how it is reimbursed varies widely. The spectrum ranges from a Medicaid program in a state like Connecticut, which will only reimburse for case management behavioral health services for clients under the age of eighteen, to states like California, which reimburses for live video across a wide variety of medical specialties.” Only nine states reimburse for store-and-forward services, in which clinical information like X-rays are stored and then forwarded to another site, because many states define telehealth as real-time, it said. Only 16 states reimburse for remote patient monitoring, the same number as in 2015, it said. On location, some states continue to restrict reimbursable telehealth to rural or underserved areas, but this is decreasing, CCHP said. Also, 23 states specify what sites can serve as an originating site for telehealth, it said.
Criminals damaged or destroyed critical Verizon network facilities in five eastern states, Verizon alleged in a news release. The telco Wednesday reported “at least 24 suspected incidents of sabotage” over one week. The alleged criminal acts include sliced fiber cabling at a network facility box in New Jersey, cut phone services in Massachusetts for 16 hours, and cut fiber and copper cables in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, it said. Verizon dispatched security teams to affected areas and is working with law enforcement, it said. It offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those involved. “We will find out who’s behind these highly dangerous criminal acts and we will pursue criminal charges,” said Michael Mason, Verizon chief security officer. “These reckless perpetrators are risking the lives of countless Americans by cutting access to key lines of communications, especially to local police, fire and rescue personnel. If someone has an emergency and needs to contact local authorities, these malicious actions could prevent that from happening.” Verizon said the incidents occurred while the company dealt with a union strike on the East Coast. CWA District 1 Vice President Dennis Trainor and CWA District 2-13 Vice President Edward Mooney responded to Verizon’s concerns about damage. "Regulators in three states are already investigating Verizon for its refusal to keep up with network maintenance and wear and tear -- the root of many ongoing service problems,” the union officials said in a joint statement. “Even with many technicians regularly working overtime hours, the demand is still too high for the current workers to cover. Additional delays that customers are experiencing because of the strike are a result of Verizon executives' insistence on offshoring and outsourcing jobs and their refusal to invest in adequately maintaining lines.”