The UN estimates 66 percent of the world’s population will be living in urban environments by 2050, Verizon said on its policy blog. That growth will spur challenges including congestion, aging infrastructure, public safety and energy management, said the company. As challenges increase, leaders will look to the IoT, Verizon said. Some of the technologies that cities can use are smart buildings; energy, water and waste management; smart parking and electric vehicle charging; adaptive traffic signal control; fleet management; smart streetlights; and remote security monitoring, it said Friday. Cities such as Charlotte, North Carolina, and Lansing, Michigan, are starting to work with Verizon on using some of the technologies, it said.
AT&T launched its U-verse gigabit Internet service Monday in three more area -- in parts of San Antonio and New Braunfels, Texas, and Orlando, Florida -- said news releases from AT&T (see here, here and here). U-verse with GigaPower can offer speeds of up to 1 Gbps.
Filing nearly a month late, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) submitted a motion for acceptance of late-filed comments as well as comments on the FCC second Further NPRM regarding the federal Lifeline program, posted Friday in docket No. 11-42. Among its main concerns, the CPUC believes the FCC should address the role of states' authority to administer broadband Internet access service as a component of universal service in their own Lifeline programs. States should also be allowed to regulate consumer protection for all Lifeline services, the CPUC said. The state commission opposes reducing the number of qualifying public assistance programs for Lifeline as well as eliminating the income-based eligibility method, and standardizing Lifeline eligibility forms, it said. The FCC shouldn't reduce federal eligible telecom carrier obligations, the CPUC said. States should also be allowed to develop their own enrollment forms and processes so they can incorporate the unique characteristics of their states, CPUC said.
The Connect America Fund (CAF) cost model "lacks sufficient focus to properly treat extremely high-cost," (XHC) sparsely populated areas of Wyoming, the Public Service Commission replied in FCC docket No. 09-197. It responded to CenturyLink and USTelecom initial comments. The PSC is concerned that the FCC hasn't realigned "frozen support" for price-cap eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) to offer voice service in XHC areas, especially since CenturyLink refused CAF Phase II in Wyoming. In states where the incumbent price-cap carrier rejected CAF II support -- as in Wyoming -- the PSC recommends that all Census blocks receive a portion of frozen support for the immediate future. After the competitive bidding process, Census blocks not awarded to a carrier should continue to get frozen support, the PSC said. The state commission encouraged its federal counterpart to require the continuation of ETC voice obligations.
The New York State Broadband Program Office seeks input from entities that might apply for funding from, or contribute to, the state's new program, said the office's request for information released Thursday. Written RFI responses are due Oct. 30. The goal of the RFI is to collect recommendations on how New York can reduce broadband deployment costs, find out what challenges may exist for the state's $500 million program to be completed and how the state can speed deployment of infrastructure to meet the existing broadband program timeline, the RFI said. The broadband program aims to get every New York resident access to high-speed Internet and aims to be implemented by the end of 2018.
The Digital New England summit Monday will feature a keynote speech from Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, the agenda said. The broadband leaders summit, in Portland, Maine, is being put on by NTIA through the BroadbandUSA program, and Next Century Cities. Others speaking at the summit include David Edelman, special assistant to the president for economic and technology policy; Rep. Norman Higgins (R), Maine House of Representatives; Connecticut Consumer Counsel Elin Katz; Maine Public Advocate Tim Schneider; NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling; and Keith Adams, Rural Utilities Service assistant administrator of telecom.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development received requests for almost three times as much money as state broadband grant funding is available, the department said in a news release. The agency’s Office of Broadband Development received requests for $29.06 million from 44 entities, while $10.58 million in funding is available to build out broadband infrastructure in Greater Minnesota, it said. During the previous application period, the state received 40 applications, it said. Under the Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program, entities can use the funding to pay up to 50 percent of the cost of expanding broadband service in unserved or underserved regions. The maximum grant available for any single entity is $5 million, the release said. The agency expects to announce in November the entities approved for funding, it said.
Fiber that served Time Warner Cable and Verizon customers was damaged by road construction, causing an outage of services in Raleigh, North Carolina, Monday afternoon, a TWC spokesman said. The services were restored to TWC customers by Tuesday morning, he said. Verizon didn't immediately comment Wednesday.
California Gov. Jerry Brown’s (D) decision to not yet sign the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act is evidence that “California is no longer a leader, not when it comes to how our privacy laws are applied in an era of constant technological growth,” wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation Investigative Researcher Dave Maass in an open letter to Brown Wednesday. Maass said he has been “digging into historical documents for any hint about what action” Brown may take on CalECPA. Though Maass says he was “impressed” by Brown’s “early work on computer literacy in the education system,” he said Brown’s signature is needed on the bill by Oct. 11 to provide privacy for individuals in California, as well as protections for “the companies we entrust our data to and the public safety officers who have to navigate the gray areas to protect us.”
The Communications Workers of America took a Verizon statement to the FCC in July out of context, said an ex parte filing by Verizon posted Wednesday in docket 13-5 and RM-11358. The resulting public relations campaign has created a false impression of Verizon’s "efforts to provide high quality services to customers that Verizon continues to serve by copper facilities," the filing said. The company has not engaged in widespread “de facto” retirement of copper; rather it has spent more than $200 million since 2008 on its copper network, Verizon said. "CWA has seized on that comment, taken it out of context, and tried to use it to create the false impression that this was all of the money that Verizon has spent to keep copper in service." CWA did not immediately comment Wednesday.