Time Warner Cable customers in parts of the Carolinas experienced a service outage Thursday caused by a router problem that lasted about 55 minutes, a spokesman emailed us Friday. Because customers in the same region are served by different routers, the outage didn't affect all of the customers in a given region, he said. The outage was the second of its kind in the Carolinas within two weeks, with the prior one Dec. 27, the spokesman said.
The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Commerce initiated an audit of FirstNet, said a letter sent in December to the FirstNet board secretary. The audit will evaluate FirstNet's processes for entering into, monitoring and closing its interagency agreements, the letter said.
Cox Communications expanded its 1 Gbps residential Internet service to Oklahoma as part of its goal to have the service available across its footprint by year's end, it said in a news release Thursday. Cox late last year also increased the speed of its High Speed Internet Ultimate package to 200 Mbps, it said.
Connected Nation Exchange received a contract to work on behalf of Warren County, Kentucky, to help provide fiber-based broadband services throughout the county, said a news release from CNX Wednesday. CNX will develop technical and financial models to find the best path for establishing public-private partnerships to invest in infrastructure and provide broadband services to county residents, businesses and community anchor institutions such as schools, libraries and public safety agencies, it said. The effort was accelerated by the start of construction of the state's new KentuckyWired middle mile network, which is designed to provide every Kentucky county faster, cheaper high-speed networks locally, it said.
Hawaii's initial consultation meeting with FirstNet focused on natural disasters, the challenges that exist in being an island state and having predominantly rural demographics, said a Wednesday blog post from FirstNet. More than 80 public safety representatives from Hawaii met with the FirstNet team. Hawaii Gov. David Ige (D) said the consultation was an opportunity to discuss building a network that will let state responders fulfill their public safety missions, the post said. A case study presented on Hurricane Iselle showed the need for the state and counties to get communications to the many areas without commercial cellular coverage, the post said. It also proved there's considerable support for the nationwide public safety broadband network to address some of the state’s coverage needs, the post said.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) is partnering with the Department of Homeland Security to strengthen the protection of critical infrastructure and government services, a Wednesday news release from his office said. Inslee signed an executive order creating a state Office of Privacy and Data Protection, it said. Both were announced at the Governor’s Summit on Cyber Security and Privacy in Seattle, the release said. The DHS partnership is a pilot to develop a "playbook of critical infrastructure defense strategies" that states and local governments can adopt, Inslee's office said. DHS and the state Office of Cyber Security will establish an advisory board of experts from government, critical infrastructure providers and intelligence organizations to guide development of the playbook. The Office of Privacy and Data Protection will build on work being done by state Chief Privacy Officer Alex Alben, Inslee's office said. The office will provide privacy training and best practices to state agencies as well as consumer outreach and education for Washington state residents, it said.
The new proposed Oklahoma map for Lifeline meets the needs of the Sac and Fox Nation, the Native American tribe said in a letter to the FCC Wireline Bureau and the Office of Native Affairs and Policy posted Thursday in docket 11-42. The concerns the tribal nation expressed during an FCC initial consultation meeting were addressed and included in the latest map, Sac and Fox said. Companies such as Cox Communications asked the FCC to extend the Feb. 9 deadline for implementing the new map so Lifeline providers in the state can implement the rule change correctly (see 1512220043).
A 36-hour fall test of a public safety LTE band 14 demonstration network involved more than 200 people, including state and federal law enforcement officers and special agents from Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), Colorado State Patrol, Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, and Idaho Springs Police Department, said a blog post from FirstNet Monday. Colorado’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the CPW installed the temporary network in support of a hunter checkpoint along a chain-up area in the Idaho Springs, Colorado, area, it said. The network provided a convenient method of data entry using touch-screens and barcode scanning through smartphones that had wireless connections to local servers supporting multiple databases with no outside connectivity, said FirstNet. The band 14 demonstration network is an early example of a vehicular network system showing the value of these types of platforms in isolated locations, where a large contingent of public safety personnel require interoperable communication support, said FirstNet.
Jupiter Broadband is launching wireless Internet in rural and suburban Florida and Georgia, and, through a strategic partnership, in similar communities nationwide, a news release from Jupiter said. All told, the coverage area served by the Jupiter Broadband network will be almost 50,000 square miles, the release said. Jupiter Broadband has both residential and dedicated business Internet service. Jupiter Broadband is also in negotiations for the construction of four more fixed wireless towers that would give the company expanded coverage in Georgia and Alabama, the release said.
Chicago's subway system now has 4G coverage across its entire red and blue lines, its two busiest, said a news release from the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). The 4G wireless project is a $32.5 million agreement brokered by the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, with the four major wireless providers -- AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon -- to finance the buildout, the release said. Over the past four years, several technology improvements implemented for Chicago’s transit system have included expansion of CTA Train Tracker and Bus Tracker functionality, digital displays with service information at bus shelters and rail stations throughout the service region, and an expanded security camera network, the release said. All CTA subways and tunnels now have wireless phone coverage, the release said.