Silver Lake is investing $1 billion in Motorola Solutions, which provides communications solutions to local, state and national public safety agencies, Motorola Solutions said in a news release Wednesday. Silver Lake is a technology investment company. The public safety vendor plans to use the investment to expand its smart public safety products and services businesses through new partnerships, investments and acquisitions, it said. Motorola Solutions also said it intends to repurchase up to $2 billion of stock. The company will fund the tender offer with a combination of existing cash and a portion of the proceeds from the $1 billion investment by Silver Lake. Motorola Solutions stock closed up 6.3 percent to $64.04 Wednesday.
Officials were still trying on Wednesday to figure out what caused a massive cellphone outage that knocked out service to customers in the Southeast on the AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon networks Tuesday. A fiber cable was reported to have been cut in western Kentucky along the Tennessee/Kentucky border, said Buddy Rogers, Kentucky Emergency Management public information officer. He didn't have any other specifics about the circumstances but said emergency services providers and other officials remained in contact through the Department of Military Affairs' radio communications system -- which is a statewide two-way radio system -- satellite radio/phones and other communications systems and devices. No issues were reported to the state emergency operations center in Kentucky while services were being restored, nor were there any requests for state-provided resources, Rogers said. Sprint and Verizon tweeted about the issue as it was happening, updating customers about what was going on. Sprint said the issue was caused by a local exchange provider, and both Verizon and Sprint said they were aware of a connection issue in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee that engineers were working to resolve. A Sprint spokesperson said services had been restored Wednesday. An AT&T spokeswoman said wireless and wireline service was restored for all customers in parts of the Southeast affected by a "hardware-related network issue." Neither Verizon nor T-Mobile commented. The Jeffersontown Police Department in Kentucky posted on its Facebook page that the 911 systems were down and gave an alternate number to call for help. A few hours later, it said 911 lines were back in service.
TeleCommunication Systems got a Tennessee contract extension through January 2021 to provide next-generation 911 management and integration services, said a company news release Tuesday. TCS is the first company to build an NG-911 system using the state's existing IP network, the firm said. TCS' service lets Tennessee implement NG-911 services that will offer citizens the ability to communicate with emergency dispatchers via voice, data, video, images and text messages, it said.
The California PUC asked the FCC for a 30-day extension to file comments on Lifeline USF overhaul proposals, adding to the joint call by three telco trade associations on Friday for such an extension (see 1507310061). The current deadlines are Aug. 17 for initial comments and Sept. 17 for replies, the CPUC said. The CPUC said in a filing posted Monday to docket 11-42 that it needed more time because it runs a Lifeline program that's more comprehensive than the FCC's, "and is accordingly, more complicated to manage." The CPUC also said it needed more time to write comments on the potential interplay between the federal and California Lifeline programs. CTIA, ITTA and USTelecom said an extension was warranted because of the complexity of the FCC proposals to cover broadband and restructure the program's administration, and because the initial comment deadline fell in the middle of the traditional summer vacation period.
Netflix didn't violate the Video Privacy Protection Act or California Civil Code Section 1799.3 when it disclosed a subscriber’s viewing history to third parties -- specifically a subscriber’s family, friends and guests, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday. To assist subscribers in adding videos to their queues or selecting videos to watch instantly, Netflix gives customers lists of recommended videos, the 9th Circuit said. “These recommendations are generated through the use of predictive software that analyzes, among other things, a subscriber’s rental history,” the court said. “Netflix displays a subscriber’s queue and recommendations lists automatically on a subscriber’s account home page.” Subscribers can edit and delete titles from the queue, but can’t hide or remove the queue or other lists displayed by Netflix, meaning they're available for others to see when subscribers accesses their account, said the ruling. Because the personally identifiable information is only available only to those who have been given access to a subscriber’s account, the 9th Circuit said the company didn’t violate the law. Judge Raymond Dearie wrote the opinion on behalf of himself and Judges Johnnie Rawlinson and Richard Tallman. It upheld a lower court's ruling. Plaintiffs Meghan Mollett and Tracy Hellwig couldn't be immediately reached for comment Monday.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the availability of loans to build broadband infrastructure in rural areas, along with changes to the program required by the 2014 Farm Bill, said a Thursday USDA news release. In a notice in the Thursday Federal Register, USDA said it's establishing two funding cycles to review and prioritize applications for the Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee program, the release said. USDA also is setting a minimum level of acceptable broadband service at 4 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up, it said. To be eligible for funding, an applicant must serve an area where at least 15 percent of the households are unserved, it said. USDA is accepting comments on the changes through Sept. 28, the release said. Applications are due Sept. 30.
Cable One is investing $9 million this year in Gulf Coast upgrades, which will give customers enhanced speed and reliability in their Internet, cable and phone service, said a news release from the company. Over the past five years, Cable One has invested more than $28 million on the Gulf Coast, the release said. This fall, Cable One in Pascagoula, Mississippi, will more than more than triple its fiber backbone capacity and cable modem network infrastructure through 12 channel bonding, it said.
Iowa Communications Network is offering CenturyLink's unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS), said a news release from CenturyLink. ICN operates a fiber broadband network for Iowa's government, healthcare, education and public safety sectors, the release said. With UCaaS available from ICN, the agency's education, public safety and government users can buy a managed services package that includes managed data networking, managed VoIP, and applications such as instant messaging and presence, it said.
Subcarrier Communications is buying Houston-based AC Site Management for $2.1 million, a news release from Subcarrier Communications said. Existing AC Site Management customers will continue to be served by Subcarrier's office in Houston, Texas, the release said.
Mayors from Syracuse and Kingston, N.Y., joined workers at a bargaining session with Verizon in Rye, New York, Thursday, said a news release from the Communications Workers of America. Four other elected officials from New York state -- mayors of Albany, Utica and Rome and the Town Supervisor of Brookhaven -- wrote letters urging Verizon to stop ignoring their communities' need for high-speed Internet and TV service, the release said. The calls to build out FiOS come as the buildout of FiOS has become a bargaining issue between Verizon and both the CWA and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers as they negotiate a new contract (see 1507290062).