Emergency call dispatchers across Kansas will soon have access to vital 911 caller information due to an agreement with AT&T, said the company in a news release Monday. The Kansas 911 Coordinating Council awarded a contract to AT&T to provide a next-generation 911 emergency communications system statewide, it said. AT&T will use cloud, wireless and wireline technology to improve the system, it said. The new 911 system is expected to improve emergency response capabilities statewide, allowing individuals in rural areas to receive the same level of service as their big city counterparts in Kansas City and Wichita, it said.
Zayo took over support responsibilities and network oversight of Colorado intergovernmental broadband provider EAGLE-Net Alliance, the company said in news release Friday. Zayo Treasurer Scott Reardon told us that the agreement "doesn't have anything to do" with the suspension of a $100 million federal grant to expand educational broadband in the state given to EAGLE-Net, after issues with the project and much congressional scrutiny (see 1212100042). Reardon said that Zayo is stepping in as a "natural partner" for EAGLE-Net and is "in discussions about [further] expanding the partnership." EAGLE-Net didn't respond to a request for comment.
Mayor Bill de Blasio Thursday said New York City will be investing up to $10 million in providing free broadband services for Housing Authority developments in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The program comes two months after the Democratic mayor promised to invest $70 million in achieving universal broadband by 2025. The investment "in free, high-speed Internet access in NYCHA developments across the city is part of that commitment, is part of building out a city where there is truly broadband access for all," de Blasio said, according to a transcript of the speech posted online. The effort is going to reach more than 16,000 people living in public housing, he said.
A new Florida Bar professional ethics committee opinion would allow lawyers to take pre-emptive steps to avoid a client’s past social media posts, photos or videos from being dragged into litigation, chair of Bilzin Sumberg’s Litigation Group's Michael Kreitzer and associate Naomi Alzate wrote in an article for the National Law Review posted Saturday. The opinion comes after an unnamed bar member inquired about the ethical obligations an attorney has when advising clients to “clean up” social media accounts to “eliminate embarrassing information the attorney considers immaterial to the suit,” they said. The lawyer also asked if a client can change his or her social media settings from “public” to “private.” If asked directly, attorneys must “comply with The Florida Bar’s Rule 4-3.4(a), which sets prohibitions on obstructing, destroying, altering or concealing material information the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is relevant to a pending or reasonably foreseeable proceeding,” the article said. The Florida Bar's proposed rule is similar to the New York County Lawyers' Association’s conclusion that “a lawyer may advise his/her clients to use the highest level of privacy settings on their social media pages and may advise clients to remove information from social media pages unless the lawyer has a duty to preserve information under law and there is no violation of law relating to spoliation of evidence,” Kreitzer and Alzate said. The opinion will become final within the next 30 days absent further action by the Florida Bar Board of Governors, they said.
TeleCommunication Systems received a contract to provide Maryland's Department of Human Resources with statewide technical operations support services, said a company news release Friday. TCS is headquartered in the state. The contract base-award term is three years with two one-year options, which if exercised have a total contract value of $11.3 million, it said.
Time Warner Cable must pay a Texas woman $229,500 for 153 automated calls it made to Araceli King's cellphone number meant for someone else, said a Tuesday decision from the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. The calls started in July 2013 and continued until August 2014, several months after King filed the lawsuit against TWC, said Jenny DeFrancisco, of Lemberg Law in Connecticut. More than 70 calls were placed after the lawsuit was filed, which the decision said are "particularly egregious violations of the TCPA [Telephone Consumer Protection Act] and indicate TWC simply did not take this lawsuit seriously." The FCC adopted a proposal to protect consumers against unwanted robocalls and spam texts less than a month ago (see 1506180046). One section of the proposal said reassigned numbers aren't loopholes in the law; if a phone number has been reassigned, companies must stop calling the number after one call, said the FCC. Lawyers for TWC said they're reviewing the decision before determining how to proceed and therefore didn't offer a comment Wednesday. DeFrancisco said her firm frequently represents consumers in TCPA cases, especially in the past few years when technology has gotten more sophisticated. While she is not sure if the decision will necessarily deter other companies from doing the same thing, DeFrancisco said she hopes it helps. "There's plenty of class-action suits out there for violations of this statute," she said. "We're hopeful that [the FCC's changes are] going to strengthen the consumers position under this statute. ... I think it's a great day to be a consumer -- it's really a great decision."
Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable asked the New York Public Service Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission to accept a transfer of indirect ultimate control of TWC to Charter, said documents filed with the New York and California commissions. The transaction doesn't involve a transfer of customers or any changes in regulated rates, terms or conditions of service, and the petition doesn't seek authority to change customers' regulated rates or terms, the New York filing said. The transaction will provide improved voice and other nonjurisdictional services at better values, and offer more competition for enterprise customers, said the California filing. Charter said the transaction won't be harmful or reduce competition in the state.
The FCC’s Connect2Health Task Force plans events Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 in Jacksonville and Miami to show how broadband-enabled health technologies can "transform health and care for seniors, children and people with disabilities," said a public notice from the FCC. The events are part of the task force’s “Beyond the Beltway Series” to reach out broadly about how broadband technologies and next-generation communications services can improve access to healthcare services throughout the country, especially in rural and underserved areas, it said. The FCC will partner with the Mayo Clinic and AARP for the events, which will feature Chairman Tom Wheeler, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and the Connect2HealthFCC Task Force, it said. The trip will also include a site visit to the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Telehealth Command Center to explore a telehealth operation, the notice said.
If Frontier's acquisition of Verizon's wireline services in California, Texas and Florida (see 1502050059) is approved before the start of 2016, it will use money allocated from the FCC through Phase II of the Connect America Fund to facilitate broadband deployment in high-cost areas of California and Texas that it will acquire, the company said in an FCC filing. Frontier told the commission in the filing it "has aggressively pursued federal and state broadband support in its current service areas, and will continue to do so in [Verizon's transferred] service areas." The company also said it plans to use about $32 million of CAF Phase II support annually through the next six years for broadband deployment in Verizon's high-cost service areas of California it's in the process of buying, and $16.5 million of CAF Phase II funds throughout the next six years to deploy "high speed broadband to around 37,000 locations in high cost areas" of Texas. "Although Frontier has not yet formulated detailed plans for enhancing broadband deployment and services in the transferring companies' service areas, it anticipates that it will start with the CAF Phase II projects, which would result in significant builds in both California and Texas," it said in the filing. The CAF Phase II projects also will improve its network speed and service, Frontier said, and will require an investment of "substantial amounts of its own capital, in addition to CAF Phase II funding" to complete the high-cost builds.
With the addition of Boise, Idaho, the Next Century Cities initiative has reached 100 communities, said a blog post from the organization. Next Century Cities is a bipartisan initiative of mayors and city leaders dedicated to ensuring the availability of next-generation broadband across the country, the post said. "As momentum grows around gigabit-level Internet, more mayors and municipal leaders are joining together to show what’s happening in their communities and to join together to help one another realize the full power of truly high-speed, affordable, and accessible broadband," it said.