Residents in Vermont can now get 10 Gbps Internet service to their homes for $400 a month from VTel, said a news release from the company. VTel’s 10 Gbps residential Internet is being funded by an $85 million VTel phone network award from the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service, it said. The project is expected to be complete by June 30, it said Thursday.
Amazon is opening a fourth Texas fulfillment center, in Dallas, to join centers in Coppell, Haslet and Schertz, it said Tuesday. The 500,000-square-foot facility will create “hundreds of new full-time jobs,” said Amazon, and will process smaller items including books, electronics and consumer goods. Amazon, which has created over 3,500 full-time jobs and invested more than $400 million in Texas, said it continues to expand operations to meet customer demand there.
Kansas City, Missouri, and Cisco signed an agreement to deploy a Smart+Connected City framework to transform urban municipal services, said a Cisco news release. As part of the framework, Cisco said it's working with a group of business partners to bring together an ecosystem to develop applications including smart lighting, digital kiosks, a development data portal, and smart water innovation development. Sprint will also deploy Cisco hardware to construct and manage an intelligent Wi-Fi network that will serve as the backbone of the connectivity platform, Cisco said.
CTIA sued to strike down a Berkeley, California, ordinance that requires retailers to make "unsubstantiated and false statements about the alleged effects of cellphones, which would contradict the findings from independent health and scientific organizations," said the association in a Monday news release. Berkeley's City Council May 26 unanimously adopted an ordinance, Requiring Notice Concerning Radio Frequency Exposure of Cell Phones, No. 7,404-N.S., the filing said. The ordinance says the disclosures and warnings that accompany cellphones generally advise consumers not to wear them against their bodies, but the disclosures and warnings often are buried in fine print and not written in easily understood language, or are accessible only by looking for the information on the device itself, the lawsuit said. The ordinance requires cellphone retailers to give all customers who buy or lease a cellphone a notice that warns of the dangers as follows: "To assure safety, the Federal Government requires that cell phones meet radio frequency (RF) exposure guidelines. If you carry or use your phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is ON and connected to a wireless network, you may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure to RF radiation. This potential risk is greater for children. Refer to the instructions in your phone or user manual for information about how to use your phone safely." The FCC has said it's confident the federal government's conservative health and safety standards for cellphones fully protect public health, CTIA said. Leading global health organizations such as the American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, World Health Organization and the Food and Drug Administration all concurred that wireless devices are not a public health risk, it said. "Berkeley's Ordinance plainly violates the First Amendment," said CTIA's representing counsel Theodore Olson, of Gibson Dunn. "The ordinance also unlawfully interferes with FCC regulations and contradicts the federal government's determination -- based on extensive scientific evidence -- that cellphones approved for sale in the United States do not pose a public health risk. It is unconstitutional to force cellphone retailers to communicate false, misleading and inflammatory information about their products. It is unfortunate that Berkeley would incite unfounded public anxiety and fear about a product that is so important to its citizens' everyday lives." The association had previously won a fight against San Francisco’s cellphone labeling law (see report in the Sept. 11, 2012, issue). The Berkeley City Council did not have an immediate comment Monday.
A U.S. District Court in San Antonio issued a temporary injunction Friday in case number 1:15-cv-00343 against the Texas Medical Board in a lawsuit filed by Teladoc for a ruling made April 10, a news release from Teladoc said. Teladoc is a telehealth provider with 10 million members and is on track to conduct more than 500,000 consults during 2015. The injunction indicated Teladoc is likely to succeed in showing that the revisions to Rule 190.8 adopted in April by the Texas Medical Board "illegally limit competition by requiring a face-to-face visit before physicians are allowed to prescribe medication to patients," Teladoc said in the release. The ruling prohibits the enforcement of the revised medical board rule until after trial to determine whether the new rule violates the law. This decision marks the sixth occasion in the past four years that the courts have sided with Teladoc against the Texas Medical Board’s repeated attempts to limit access to affordable, quality health care in the state, Teladoc said.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission extended comment and reply comment dates and pushed back a public hearing on possible revisions to its 911 rules in response to recent legislation and in response to recent events that affected 9-1-1 network reliability in Colorado, including recent catastrophic fires and floods, said a notice from the PUC mailed on Wednesday. The deadline for comments is June 25, with replies July 17. The public hearing is June 26, the filing said.
A petition requesting a declaratory ruling under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act facilitates the critical public policy goal of ensuring the safe, reliable and efficient provision of utility services to citizens of Houston, the city said in an ex parte letter posted Wednesday in docket 02-278. Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association have requested a ruling that a customer who provides a telephone number to a utility constitutes "prior express consent" under the TCPA for purposes of receiving automated, serviced-related utility contacts, the filing said. It's essential for utility providers to communicate in real time with customers about matters that directly affect their service, such as planned or unplanned service outages, it said. Absent such communications, the exchange of critical information can be delayed and already strained municipal services may be further taxed as a result of having to direct customer calls that would otherwise be avoided through the use of an automated, utility notification program, the filing said.
The FCC should consider adopting safeguards that allow all wireless providers equal opportunity to secure critical spectrum resources in the upcoming 600 MHz auction, said Rep. Robert Godshall, majority chairman of the Pennsylvania House Consumer Affairs Committee, in a letter to the FCC in docket 12-268. The commission should consider increasing the size of the reserve in each market to reduce market concentration and protect consumers, government and business from paying more for wireless service than they would if the market were more competitive, he said. Preserving competition in the wireless market will benefit consumers through increased choices, lower prices, and higher quality and more reliable services, Godshall said.
The New Jersey Office of Attorney General dropped its investigation of Tidbit, said a consent order filed Tuesday in Essex County Superior Court in New Jersey. Tidbit was a project of four Massachusetts Institute of Technology students who developed the software for a hackathon in November 2013. The software was envisioned as a substitute for website advertisements, allowing sites to instead monetize visits by using visitors’ computers to mine for bitcoins. Tidbit’s developer is prohibited from accessing or attempting to access New Jerseyans’ computers without clearly and conspicuously notifying the owners and obtaining their verifiable consent, the order said. The consent order also includes a $25,000 settlement that will be suspended and automatically vacated within two years, provided the software developer complies with the settlement terms. “We do not believe Tidbit was created for the purpose of invading privacy,” said Division of Consumer Affairs Acting Director Steve Lee in a news release. “However, this potentially invasive software raised significant questions about user privacy and the ability to gain access to and potentially damage privately owned computers without the owners’ knowledge and consent. As privacy threats become more and more sophisticated, State law requires us to protect the interests and safety of New Jersey consumers.”
A law that eliminates the requirement that a communications services provider allow a physical connection by other providers to its system was signed into law May 4 by Gov. Mike Pence (R) the Indiana General Assembly website said. The Wireless Telecommunications Investment Act (HB-1318) also establishes a uniform statewide procedure for applications for and issuance of permits for the construction and modification of structures and facilities for the provision of wireless services and specifies that local planning and zoning laws apply to the issuance of permits for communications structures and facilities under the new provisions, the bill text says. The law also requires applications for permits to show evidence of compliance with criteria in applicable zoning ordinances. The law will help increase the availability and capacity of wireless broadband services in every region of the state, said Jonathan Adelstein, president of PCIA-The Wireless Infrastructure Association. "The new law will help deploy innovative small wireless facilities by defining them using a PCIA-developed volume-based and technology-neutral methodology," he said. "The bill will also establish certainty regarding key statewide definitions and set timelines that will increase investment, thereby providing a path for Indiana’s consumers, business, and public safety entities to enjoy increased broadband coverage and capacity.”