Citing the need to extend online connectivity in Montana's Blackfeet Reservation, the FCC Wireline Bureau signed off on a 3 Rivers Telephone Cooperative/Siyeh Communications petition for a waiver of FCC rules to apportion 3 Rivers' current Connect America Fund intercarrier compensation base period revenue between 3 Rivers and SiyCom. The order in Tuesday's Daily Digest also initialized SiyCom’s tariffed rates at 3 Rivers’ current rates and let SiyCom immediately join the National Exchange Carrier Association and NECA’s traffic-sensitive tariff. The waivers will let SlyCom go through with its 3 Rivers purchase without putting more burdens on the USF or raising rates, it said.
Everywhere in the U.S. Virgin Islands will get access to 1 Gbps fixed broadband through the Connect USVI fund, said an FCC news release Monday. Broadband VI is eligible for $84.5 million over 10 years “to provide the highest performance tier of 1 Gbps service to 46,039 locations,” it said. “This funding will ensure that fast, resilient broadband networks reach all homes and businesses in the U.S. Virgin Islands,” said Chairman Ajit Pai. “Winning applicants in the Connect USVI Fund and Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund will be able to receive funding after completing the Commission’s remaining steps for authorizing high-cost support,” the release said.
Amazon expanded in-garage delivery to households in 4,000 U.S. cities and launched limited in-garage delivery service through Whole Foods in five markets, it said Thursday. Amazon's Key In-Garage Delivery service went live last year with Chamberlain Group, which makes smart garage door openers. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Washington, Houston, Boston, Atlanta and Phoenix are among new cities with access to the contactless delivery service. Details are here.
Altice is now producing News 12 New York, a streaming feed of news stories from its regional cable news channels around the metropolitan New York area, it said Tuesday. 12 New York is available on Tubi and The Weather Channel's Local Now streaming service, and will soon be on Plex and the Vizio SmartCast, it said.
T-Mobile is expanding its $50-a-month Home Internet pilot to more than 130 additional municipalities in Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin, the carrier said Monday. The "pandemic has underscored the importance of broadband connectivity, and how sorry the state of home broadband is for many in America -- especially those in rural communities that have been undervalued and underserved by traditional cable providers and ISPs for years,” T-Mobile said.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission extended through 2020 a $1 million broadband adoption program for low-income families during the pandemic (see 2004220035), it said Thursday: During the initial program, which ran mid-March to June, the commission OK’d $205,000 for about 2,000 consumers.
General Motors' self-driving subsidiary Cruise “continues to make progress” with launch of the Origin shared-ride autonomous vehicle, said CEO Mary Barra on a Q3 call Thursday. The Origin will be built at GM’s “Factory Zero” in Hamtramck, Michigan, she said. GM began testing the Origin’s Ultium battery system at its Milford, Michigan, “proving ground,” and "pre-production” Origin vehicles are expected next year, she said. Cruise AVs will be tested in San Francisco by the end of 2021 “without backup drivers” after California regulators give GM gets the “go-ahead,” she said. “Cruise will be the first company to test autonomous vehicles with no backup driver in a dense and complex urban driving environment.” GM and Cruise in "coming months” plan to file an “exemption petition” with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “to deploy Origin vehicles without steering wheels or pedals,” said Barra. Cruise is working with an epidemiologist and using health research “to identify measures that may help maintain a healthy ride environment,” free from risks of COVID-19, she said.
Michigan voters appeared to approve a proposed constitutional amendment to require search warrants to access electronic data and communications. The proposal would apply the same conditions required for the government to get a warrant to search a house or seize a person’s belongings. With 72 of 83 counties reporting, about 88.8% voted yes. In California, another privacy ballot initiative was on the way to OK (see 2011040033).
AT&T responses to California Public Utilities Commission concerns about retiring DSL were “short on details and do little to provide me with the confidence that this action is in the public’s interest,” CPUC President Marybel Batjer wrote the carrier Monday: “The responses provide data that we already have, and do little to back up your claim that these customers will be better served by your competitors or by an alternative service that you offer.” Saying wireless will fill the gap isn’t factually supported, and it may take six years for communities to recover, Batjer said. “The lingering question remains, why hasn’t AT&T made the incremental investments necessary to upgrade all DSL customers to VDSL or even more ideally, fiber to the premises?” she asked. “Underserved communities must be prioritized, not abandoned, especially during a time of unprecedented wildfires and a worldwide public health crisis.” The telco couldn’t be reached by our deadline.
The New Jersey Assembly voted 70-0 Thursday for A-4808 to set up a broadband office within the state's Board of Public Utilities. The Senate introduced the identical bill, S-3086, that day. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) signed HB-74 Wednesday to set up a broadband office in that state, while Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) signed a bill (HB-2438) Thursday to empower electric cooperatives to provide broadband (see 2010220015). Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), meanwhile, signed an executive order Friday creating a Broadband Advisory Board in the Office of Information Technology to coordinate state broadband efforts. Polis also released a broadband report with recommendations on governance, mapping, funding and deployment. One is to consider “designating broadband as a utility within the state and managed as a regulated service.”