TDS Telecom joined Adtran's Enabling Communities, Connecting Lives program, a news release from Adtran said Thursday. TDS provides high-speed Internet, phone and TV entertainment services in more than 150 rural, suburban and metropolitan areas, Adtran said. The company is using Adtran's gigabit services platform for its TDS Fiberville Fiber-to-the-Home service within selected New Hampshire communities, Adtran said. The Enabling Communities, Connecting Lives program shows how innovative technologies are being used in cities, towns and communities across the country to support economic growth and urban development, it said. It said earlier this week it had activated broadband services to 200 communities (see 1508120033).
Verizon Wireless signed on to participate in phases 4 and 5 of the build-out of the Transit Wireless network that will provide cellular and Wi-Fi service to the subway in New York City, said a Tuesday news release from Transit Wireless. All four major wireless carriers have been working with Transit Wireless on the project that will cover 279 underground stations with 6 million riders per day across the boroughs of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, the release said. Verizon service is in 63 stations and it will connect the remaining stations in phase 3 by the end of the summer, Transit said. Phase 4 of the network buildout, which began construction in March, is connecting 37 Manhattan and Bronx stations, the release said. Phase 5, which is scheduled to start construction late this year, will comprise 37 Manhattan stations, it said.
The number of information technology job postings by Illinois employers jumped nearly 90 percent in Q2 over the year-ago period, said a news release Wednesday from CompTIA. Illinois employers posted 53,388 IT job openings, vs. 28,312 in Q2 2014, said the group. The large majority of jobs posted were in the Chicago metropolitan area, it said. Illinois ranks eighth among states in overall tech employment; fourth in the number of tech establishments; and fourth in the number of Q2 IT job postings, CompTIA said.
Adtran has enabled Gigabit broadband services to more than 200 communities as part of its Enabling Communities, Connecting Lives program, it said in a Tuesday news release. Adtran said it is helping service providers, cable operators, municipalities and rural carriers deploy broadband service that can be a game-changer for community revitalization.
Cox Communications is launching gigabit Internet service for residential customers in San Diego, the company said in a news release Wednesday. Cox's initial launch of G1gablast, the name the company is marketing its gigabit service under, will include new single-family home communities in Escondido and north San Diego, it said. The company already launched G1gablast service in parts of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Irvine, California; Las Vegas; New Orleans; Omaha; and Phoenix, the cable ISP said. Cox also said customers with the Ultimate Internet package will see speeds double to 300 Mbps.
Former MIT and Harvard students are releasing One-Touch-911 to act as a data pipeline from any connected device to first responders as a part of the RapidSOS project that was originally developed to revolutionize emergency medical services, said a news release from the new company. RapidSOS is a technology platform that predicts emergencies before they occur, dynamically warns people in harm’s way, and ensures that first responders are always accessible. The One-Touch-911 system interfaces with dispatch centers in more than 135 countries -- transmitting data from a user’s phone directly to dispatchers in an emergency, the release said. The project received $5 million in financing from Highland Capital Partners, it said.
Verizon customers in East Texas experienced a service disruption after an "equipment issue" occurred Monday afternoon, a Verizon spokeswoman said. A damaged or cut fiber optic cable caused the outage, she said, and Verizon is still investigating how that damage occurred. The telco restored service to all affected customers just after 8 p.m. Monday, she said. The company did not provide numbers on how many subscribers were affected.
Pennsylvania Working Families began a campaign to bring Verizon FiOS to underserved areas, a news release from the organization said. The campaign's main target area is the Lehigh Valley, where the organization, along with the Communications Workers of America, held a town hall meeting Tuesday afternoon. The groups also released a radio ad and launched a website on Monday urging Verizon to bring FiOS to those underserved areas in and around the Lehigh Valley, the group said. Pennsylvania Working Families, CWA, local elected officials and citizens from the Lehigh Valley are calling on the Public Utility Commission to investigate the safety, adequacy and reliability of Verizon service in the state, the release said. The groups also held a door-to-door canvass over the weekend in Bethlehem to talk to citizens about the FiOS campaign, it said. Pennsylvania Working Families is tied closely with the CWA, which, along with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, has seen contracts expire in recent weeks (see 1508030061). A Verizon spokesman called the campaign nothing more than an attempt by union leaders to "distract attention from the real issues that need to be resolved at the bargaining table, namely healthcare costs, pensions and workplace flexibility."
The Public Service Commission of West Virginia and Verizon used Tuesday's 8/11 date to remind people to call 811 before they start any project that requires digging. Whether installing a mailbox, building a deck, planting a tree or laying a patio, residents need to call West Virginia 811 before they begin, said a news release from the PSC. By calling the free nationwide number -- 811 -- anyone who is planning on digging can help prevent the unintentional strike of underground utility lines, Verizon said in its news release. The depth of utility lines varies and lines can move when the ground freezes and thaws or an area receives a large amount of rain, the PSC release said. The risk of hitting an underground utility exists, even when digging only a few inches. Striking a pipeline, wire or cable can cause personal injury or death and may result in costly repairs, fines or inconvenient outages, it said.
The right training for dealing with disasters helps individuals, communities, economies and others better absorb the shock of an emergency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a Monday post on FirstNet's blog. That kind of preparedness translates to shorter recovery times and increased resilience, which applies to everything from human health to international emergency response to coastal disasters, NOAA said. Its Office of Response and Restoration recognizes the importance of training and education for preparing local responders to respond effectively to coastal disasters, the agency said.