The New York State Public Service Commission seeks comment on an assessment of the state of telecom there, said PSC news release. The assessment considers technologies used, availability and trends, consumption adoption patterns and regulatory interests associated with each segment. Over the next several months, the PSC will conduct six public forums across the state as it charts a future course for telecom policy and regulatory oversight, it said. The commission is performing the evaluation because evolution of technology spurred by the development of the Internet and broadband is profoundly changing the fundamental concept of communication services in the state, it said. “The Internet and broadband have emerged as a powerful technology, and as a result, existing rules governing the mechanisms, business models and regulatory construct for overseeing voice, cable and broadband communications, some of which were put in place decades ago, need to be examined to ensure that they are adequate to meet today’s consumer needs,” said Commission Chair Audrey Zibelman. In response to growing competition in voice services, the commission and the legislature previously opted to streamline the regulatory process to allow more flexibility and reduce regulatory burdens to ensure traditional carriers remain competitive, the PSC said. The PSC said the regulatory interests include the maintenance of public safety communications, including the provision of advanced next-generation E-911 to all New Yorkers; reliable, resilient and open network architecture; affordable rates; service quality standards; universal service; and consumer protections. It must also consider new priorities that include the promotion and availability of world-class advanced voice, video and broadband services to all New Yorkers regardless of their location or economic status, the agency said.
Washington County, Tennessee, was certified as a connected community by Connected Tennessee Tuesday, said a news release from Connected Nation. The county also introduced a Technology Action Plan, to build on Washington County’s digital foundation, the release said. Washington County is the fourth certified connected community in Tennessee and 54th in the U.S.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad signed the Connect Every Acre high-speed broadband bill Monday, said a news release from the Republican governor’s office. It said the bill, House File 655, encourages expansion of high-speed broadband to the entire state, helping to foster growth for modern agriculture, increase access for rural communities and school districts, and connect small business to the global market. The bill passed the Iowa Senate 48-2 June 4 (see 1506050053) and the House 82-12 that day.
The FCC sent letters to Frontier and Verizon Wednesday requesting more information about Frontier's buyout (see 1502050059) of Verizon's wireline systems in California, Texas and Florida. The letters follow a Communications Workers of America request for both companies to provide the FCC with additional information about the details of the sale (see 1506010027). In the information requests, both companies are asked to respond to questions about potential financial issues, transition plans, functionality and service quality, broadband deployment improvement, capital expenditure plans, and potential savings. The FCC asked that written responses to each question in the letters be sent by July 1 "in order to expedite consideration" of the companies' sale application. "Frontier acknowledges that requests for further information are all part of the process in obtaining FCC and regulatory approval," a Frontier spokesperson said. "We will continue to provide information where appropriate." Verizon declined to comment on the FCC's request.
Instead of looking back after five years of implementation, the National Broadband Plan should be reviewed each year, said NBP author Blair Levin, now of the Brookings Institution, during a panel Wednesday at the institution. "Somebody on an annual basis should be saying, 'How are we doing?'" he said. "I asked the chairman of the FCC to do that, but his PR person vetoed it saying if we did that, people would criticize us, and I just said, 'Well, that's a good thing.' We should be willing to be judged." The discussion comes as the NBP marks its five-year anniversary this year and focused on development of the plan, the changes that have been made over the past five years and what lies ahead for U.S. broadband development. The plan has changed the focus of the FCC permanently, said Austin Schlick, Google director-communications law. "Broadband is now the preeminent service overseen by the FCC. I think that most commissioners would agree." Since moving forward with the plan's spectrum portions, companies such as AT&T have embraced the use of unlicensed spectrum, which has helped to remedy the traffic overload, said Schlick, who was general counsel at the FCC when the NBP was issued. To move forward with the national plan and continue to make universal access a reality, Levin said that states have to want to play a role in the deployment of broadband. Part of that involves the Google Fiber initiative. Every time Google announces it's coming to a new city, the telcos are right behind in announcing gigabit service as well, said Schlick. Often, existing telcos are able to get gigabit service deployed before Google because the company has to start from scratch, he said. "You can see a price difference between markets where we are and markets where we aren't, but this is a good thing," Schlick said. "Companies provide better service at lower prices where we enter the market, and now you're seeing deployment of gigabit networks where Google is not at all. The idea has caught on."
Industry members should educate New York State policymakers and community leaders about the economic, societal and cultural benefits that wireless broadband technologies offer throughout the state, PCIA President Jonathan Adelstein told the New York State Wireless Association’s Wireless Forum 2015 Wednesday, said a PCIA release. It said he lauded NYSWA's ongoing municipal and state advocacy efforts on behalf of the wireless industry. Among NYSWA's advocacy initiatives is the first-ever independent assessment of the commercial mobile sector's benefit to New York State's employment, tax base and economic growth prospects, said PCIA.
Front Range Internet completed a fully redundant, 10 GB fiber network upgrade, it said in a news release. FRII is one of northern Colorado’s longest-standing Internet and commercial data services providers and has been principally serving regional businesses and municipalities with a 1 GB fiber network since 2002, it said. The network is part of a series of infrastructure investments, including a $2.3 million data center that was completed by FRII early this year, it said. The network’s fiber ring utilizes the existing underground cable of the Platte River Power Authority and has redundant fiber connections to ensure uninterrupted connectivity, it said.
Gigi Sohn, counselor to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, commended New York for the state's billion-dollar rural broadband expansion program, during a speech Thursday at the New York State Broadband Summit. The digital divide is "shrinking" but is still an issue for millions of Americans, which is why the "New NY Broadband Program" is "such a big deal," Sohn said according to written remarks. The program, a $500 million investment by the state with a 50 percent provider match, is designed to help pay for broadband to reach the state's "underserved and unserved" populations, its website said. Sohn touted the commission's recently updated broadband standard (see 1501290043) and said it would provide faster and better broadband to customers who will be reached by New York's new broadband program. Sohn also spoke on the FCC ruling to pre-empt municipal broadband laws in North Carolina, which she said prevented community broadband networks from expanding to surrounding areas. North Carolina has filed a lawsuit in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals against the FCC (see 1505150043). Sohn told the audience that the commission "will not be afraid to act" when state laws directly conflict with federal laws and policy, and "sent a clear message" to Americans by ruling for municipal broadband. She expressed concerns about the lack of competition in the broadband market -- which one analyst said doesn't bode well for Charter's planned buy of Time Warner Cable. Sohn said traditional DSL has "not kept pace with the needs of today's consumers" and is "no longer a real alternative to faster cable and fiber networks," which has resulted in a lack of competition. BTIG's Richard Greenfield said in a blog post that Sohn's comments reinforce his views that the deal "faces a very challenging regulatory path." Sohn said that the FCC and the Department of Justice have worked to "discourage transactions that we believed would reduce competition." Greenfield noted that "new" Charter would be almost as large as Comcast -- which dropped its planned buy of TWC after facing potential regulatory challenges.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office wrote eBay and PayPal Tuesday about the companies' amended user agreements and their potential to allow "robo-messaging." The letters point to particular sections of the updated agreements that Schneiderman's office said allow PayPal and eBay to contact "customers using 'autodialed or prerecorded calls and text messages' for a wide range of purposes, including to 'collect a debt, poll opinions through surveys or questionnaires' and 'contact [users] with offers and promotions.'" The FCC sent its own letter to PayPal Thursday, saying it's "concerned that these amendments [to the user agreements] may violate federal laws governing the use of autodialed, prerecorded, and artificial voice calls, including text messages." The FCC also repeated its rules for collecting written consent from customers before beginning robocalls, and warned that the current language of the user agreement might violate regulations. The commission said it prohibits a company from "requiring a consumer to consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing or advertising calls as a condition of purchasing any property, good, or service, and the company must give consumers notice of their right to refuse to give such consent." Schneiderman's office requested answers to questions in its letters to both companies be submitted by June 19. "We have received a letter from the FCC and the New York State Attorney General's office, and look forward to responding," a PayPal spokesperson said Thursday. "We strive to be as clear as possible with our customers and clarified our policies and practices las[t] week on the PayPal blog. Our customers can choose not to receive autodialed or prerecorded message calls."
Nevada’s definition of personal information in data security law expands July 1. It will include: a username, unique identifier or email address in combination with a password, access code, or security question and answer that would permit access to an online account; medical identification or health insurance identification number; and a driver authorization card number, said a Hunton & Williams blog post Tuesday. Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval signed AB-179 into law in May, his office has said. “Although Nevada’s data security law previously excluded ‘publicly available information ... lawfully made available to the general public’ from the definition of personal information," the law firm said, the bill "narrows the scope of that exclusion, limiting it to information available ‘from federal, state or local governmental records.’”