The South Georgia Regional Information Technology Authority (SGRITA) is proposing a partnership with Albany (Georgia) Water, Gas & Light (WG&L), to operate wireless broadband services in Baker, Calhoun, Early, Miller, Mitchell, Seminole and Terrell counties. If the Albany City Commission approves the plan, Albany WG&L would provide wireless service to more than 21,000 residential customers, almost 2,300 business customers and almost 250 institutional customers in the region. SGRITA said it’s financing the project through $13.3 million in Rural Utilities Service loans and grants.
California Public Utilities Commissioner Catherine Sandoval urged the FCC in an ex parte filing posted Friday to rely on both Title II and Section 706 of the Communications Act as it creates new net neutrality rules. Title II and Section 706 are “complementary” but “only Title II, applied with appropriate forbearance and a light regulatory touch, can protect common carriers, broadcasters and other FCC licensees, and Internet speakers from ISP discrimination and high Internet entry barriers,” Sandoval said. She noted she was speaking on her own behalf and not on the behalf of the full CPUC (http://bit.ly/1riVCGA). The CPUC withdrew from consideration possible comments on the FCC’s NPRM ahead of what had been a planned Thursday vote on the issue, prompting criticism from public interest groups in the state (see 1410160054). Sandoval recommended the FCC refer any new proposed net neutrality rules to the Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Conference, the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service and the Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Telecommunications Services, for which Sandoval serves as policy chairwoman. Those bodies can evaluate the proposed rules for federal and state implications related to universal service, Internet access, public safety, security and critical infrastructure issues, Sandoval said. She also noted her concerns about the net neutrality NPRM’s paid prioritization language, which she said would be harmful to consumers, public safety agencies, “content creators” and critical infrastructure sectors. Sandoval said she noted similar concerns during an Oct. 7 meeting with Priscilla Delgado, legal adviser to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, and during a Sept. 24 forum with Rosenworcel and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif.
New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Transit Wireless said wireless and Wi-Fi service are now available in 11 additional subway stations in Manhattan and will go live in 29 stations in Queens in the coming weeks. The Manhattan and Queens deployments will mean that 76 underground MTA subway stations have wireless and Wi-Fi service, the MTA said Thursday. Transit Wireless said it hopes to provide wireless and Wi-Fi service in all 277 underground MTA stations by 2017. PCTel said separately that it was a supplier of multiband MIMO antennas for the service expansion (http://bit.ly/1sY4oQG).
Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) gave final approval Wednesday to Frontier Communications’ $2 billion purchase of AT&T’s broadband, video and wireline assets in the state (http://bit.ly/1sJgNXg). PURA’s final decision on Frontier/AT&T Connecticut almost completely tracked with a draft decision released Sept. 30 1410010024, which had prompted limited concerns from other parties in the proceeding 1410090003. PURA said it wouldn’t revise its decision to reflect concerns that Connecticut Light and Power raised, but did formally adopt a separate settlement between Frontier and the Connecticut divisions of Cablevision, Charter Communications, Cox Communications and MetroCast Communications as part of PURA’s decision. PURA's review was the only remaining regulatory barrier for the deal, which Frontier said Wednesday is now set to close on Oct. 24. About 2,600 AT&T employees in Connecticut will become Frontier employees at the deal’s completion, Frontier said. Communications Workers of America Local 1298, which supported Frontier/AT&T Connecticut, shares “Frontier's goal of putting the customer first,” said CWA Local 1298 President Bill Henderson in a Frontier news release. “We look forward to introducing residential and business customers to Frontier's local engagement plan and great customer service” (http://bit.ly/1qw6ilR).
AT&T said it will expand its U-verse with GigaPower gigabit Internet service into Chicago (http://soc.att.com/ZqTW7a) and four Georgia cities, including Atlanta (http://soc.att.com/ZqTW7a). The other Georgia cities named in Tuesday’s announcement are Decatur (http://soc.att.com/1trFR7x), Newnan (http://soc.att.com/1rtePFb) and Sandy Springs. The five municipalities were part of the list of 100 cities that AT&T identified in April as potential markets for the GigaPower expansion. AT&T said it will release specifics on deployment timing and pricing later.