Cincinnati Bell will partner with YouTube TV to provide video streaming content to Cincinnati Bell fiber-to-the-home customers in greater Cincinnati and Hawaiian Telecom customers in Hawaii, the telco said Wednesday.
The California Public Utilities Commission wants the FCC to not proceed with its phase one Rural Digital Opportunity Fund auction until it has better broadband mapping data, it told an adviser to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, posted Tuesday in docket 19-126. The CPUC said working with tribal entities to recruit providers for RDOF requires substantial lead time, asking again that "the FCC not begin the RDOF Phase I auction this year." California is one of 48 states eligible for such participation. New York and Alaska have conflicts with "previously established programs to fund rural broadband in those states," the FCC said Tuesday, and are ineligible. The agency estimates 6 million homes and businesses could benefit from phase one. States with the most bid eligible locations are California, Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. Those with the least are Connecticut, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Delaware and New Jersey. Commissioners vote on the rules Jan. 30 (see 2001080049).
State House Republicans floated a universal-service bill Tuesday to permit Indiana's Utility Regulatory Commission to require interconnected VoIP providers pay into state USF. Rep. J.D. Prescott and two others introduced HB-1304. It would authorize IURC to adjust the state USF surcharge percentage and make other rules to administer the fund. The bill adjusts broadband rules.
If FirstNet doesn't work with America’s Public Television Stations, the FCC "may wish to engage through oversight or other action to ensure that the nation’s first responders have the full benefit of public television’s datacasting capability," APTS told Public Safety Bureau staff in a filing for docket 19-254. "APTS seeks first and foremost to work with FirstNet and AT&T in a cooperative approach." FirstNet didn't comment Monday. “In an ideal world, the Commission would encourage the integration of datacasting and, if necessary, mandate that ATSC 3.0 broadcast chips be included in all public safety phones and devices,” the public broadcaster group said. “Such action would allow for a transparent hand-off of datacasting from public TV broadcast stations to the public safety LTE network allowing for a two-way mobile communications path.” Friday, FirstNet Executive Director Edward Parkinson said at CES FirstNet has more than 1 million connections. "We’ve seen commercial carriers competing like they never have before to gain public safety’s business,” he said: “We’ve seen industry rising to the occasion for our first responders with new devices, apps, and solutions."
NARUC leaders urged FCC commissioners to delay sharing 6 GHz frequencies with unlicensed devices including for Wi-Fi until automatic frequency coordination can be proven to ward off interference. “Radiofrequency interference to these mission-critical communications systems in the 6 GHz band risks causing interruptions of the delivery of essential energy and water services as well as the loss of communications with railroad positive train control systems and police, fire and rescue operations,” NARUC President Brandon Presley and Telecom Committee Chair Karen Charles Peterson wrote all five members in a Thursday letter emailed to us the next day. NARUC passed a resolution on that subject in November (see 1911210011).
San Francisco, defending before the FCC its Police Code Article 52 that mandated building owners let ISP share all wiring, followed an "incoherent strategy" of vagueness about what the ordinance says, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Jan. 3 and released Friday. He said the city finally asserted its ordinance doesn't require sharing of in-use wiring, but the ordinance language seemed to say otherwise. If the municipality's correct, he said, "there is no reason ... to object to our narrow ruling." Commissioners voted 3-2 in July to pre-empt part of the open access rule (see 1907100020). Mayor London Breed (D) didn't comment Friday. Pelosi's letter, dated July 10, said the proposed pre-emption "is deeply misguided [and would put] a chilling effect on much-needed competition in the telecommunications sector."
The FCC estimates 19.5 percent of cellsites are out in Puerto Rico from recent earthquakes, mostly due to power outages, said the disaster information reporting system Thursday report. That’s down from 31.7 percent the previous day (see 2001080006). A Puerto Rico Telecommunications Regulatory Board spokesperson estimated outages at 26 percent Thursday, the same as the day before. Cable and wireline companies reported nearly 173,400 subscribers out of service, down from about 258,600. Liberty Cablevision is assessing its network, including fiber rings, cables and posts, and so far hasn’t found major damage, CEO Naji Khoury said in a statement. Infrastructure is “operating at full capacity,” but power outages in 35 municipalities are disrupting service, it said: About 51 percent of its customers have access to their internet service.
The Agriculture Department's Rural Utilities Service will spend $48 million to support rural Virginia broadband infrastructure through ReConnect pilot, it announced Thursday. Money to Wilkes Telephone should support more than 22,600 homes plus health and educational facilities.
The latest form 477 data on fixed broadband and mobile voice and broadband deployment through Dec. 31, 2018, was released, the FCC Wireline and Wireless bureaus and Office of Economics and Analytics said Wednesday. Mobile deployment data includes revisions filers made through June 11, fixed broadband data through Dec. 3.
New York City aims to build open-access fiber infrastructure “to nearly every street intersection with an aggregation point in every neighborhood,” under a plan released Tuesday to tackle internet affordability. The city would tap city real estate and public rights of way to “allow network operators to extend fiber optic infrastructure from the intersection to a pole or building and deliver service using any of a number of potential technologies.” Planned infrastructure would cost $2.1 billion if it’s built entirely new through the city and uses the open access conduit system in Manhattan and the Bronx, said the plan. The city would prioritize fiber in neighborhoods with low levels of commercial fiber service, and wireless infrastructure in low-income areas. Internet pricing and quality varies throughout New York City, where 40 percent of households lack a combination of home and mobile broadband and more than 1.5 million residents (18 percent) don’t have either, said the plan. “This inequity reflects underlying disparities in infrastructure and market competition, impeding full economic and social inclusion.” Affordability is the biggest barrier to adoption in New York, it said. This is “giving notice to corporations that the days of creating a digital divide in our city are over,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio (D).