The Arizona Corporation Commission reorganized its Utility Division to enhance efficiency, accountability and service to consumers and utilities, the ACC said in a news release Monday. The division includes 60 staffers and monitors 685 companies, it said. The division now will be composed of six departments: Revenue and Audits, Policy and Programs, Engineering, Consumer Services, Administration and the Director’s Office. The division gave more definition to employee roles and reassigned some employees to different departments. Major cases will be assigned to a deputy director sponsor within the Director’s Office, the ACC said. It’s a “long overdue re-organization,” Chairman Doug Little said. Last month, the ACC said it’s considering an ethics code, following the investigation and subsequent resignation of ex-Chairwoman Susan Bitter Smith (see 1606150009).
Some Charlotte residents and businesses can now sign up for Google Fiber, including broadband, TV and phone services, said Google in a blog post Tuesday. Service is available first to the Highland Creek neighborhood and will come to other Charlotte areas over time, Google said. In addition to a 1,000 Mbps broadband plan for $70 monthly and a 100 Mbps plan for $50, Google Fiber will introduce a low-income plan offering 25 Mbps for $15 a month, it said. The company announced Fiber for Charlotte and three other markets in January (see 1501270053). Also Tuesday, Google Fiber revealed three new monthly plans for small businesses: 1,000 Mbps for $250, 250 Mbps for $100 and 100 Mbps for $70. Each plan includes up to 13 static IP addresses. The plans are available now in Charlotte and will expand to other Google Fiber markets Aug. 1.
San Diego will upgrade its public safety communications network to enhance emergency response capabilities, under a deal with Nokia, the company said in a news release Monday. Using Internet Protocol/multi-protocol label switching and packet microwave radio technology, the network will provide backhaul for San Diego’s P25 digital trunked radio system and support other municipal agencies and services, Nokia said. It supports voice and data communications, video surveillance, supervisory control and data acquisition and other applications, the company said. Nokia will provide routers, switches and other equipment and services, it said.
NARUC doesn't plan to vote on any big telecom items at its summer meeting in Nashville next week, according to a list of draft resolutions released Tuesday. The deadline for submitting resolutions was Monday. The meeting schedule does list Telecommunications Committee panel discussions on several current topics including special access, 5G wireless, rate-of-return reform, phone number portability, Next-Generation 911, the Connect America Fund Phase II auction and the FCC Lifeline order challenged by states in federal court.
Verizon revealed four Boston neighborhoods to be getting Fios in late 2016 after polling customers about where the company should prioritize its fiber rollout. Verizon will bring fiber first to West Roxbury, Roslindale, Dorchester and the Dudley Square Innovation District in Roxbury, it said in a news release Monday. Verizon announced the $300 million Boston Fios deployment in April (see 1604120057).
Verizon quarreled with the Communications Workers of America over the due date for the company's testimony in a New York Public Service Commission investigation of the telco's copper service quality. Verizon last week asked for a two-week extension (see 1607080040) from the current July 18 due date. It would be the telco’s second extension; comments were originally due May 20, but Verizon got more time because of the East Coast union strike. “Verizon has failed to provide a rational basis for a second delay,” CWA said in a letter Friday to the PSC. “It asserts only that it erred in calculating the time needed to comply. It does not assert that it is unable to comply.” Verizon fired back in a letter to the commission Monday. CWA hasn’t “identified any reason why it would be prejudiced by a modest two-week extension,” the telco said. “Before Verizon can submit any of its testimony, it must validate the data it is collecting, ensure that it is being presented in a consistent manner, assess the cogency of Verizon’s positions in light of that data, and make sure that those positions are consistent with each other.”
Verizon is seeking a two-week extension to file testimony in the New York Public Service Commission investigation of the telco's copper service quality. If the extension is granted, the testimony would be due Aug. 1 instead of July 18. The PSC already granted Verizon an extension May 12 after the company said the strike of its union workers made it difficult to meet the original May 20 deadline. "In retrospect, Verizon underestimated the amount of time that would be required for the company -- including the numerous individuals involved in the preparation of the testimony -- to return to a ‘business as usual’ status quo following the end of the strike," Verizon said in a letter to the state commission Friday. "Given the breadth of the issues raised by the Commission’s order, it has proven more time-consuming than we had anticipated to gather and analyze the vast amount of data required to prepare our testimony, to research relevant issues, and to thoroughly vet the company’s positions, analyses, and arguments to ensure that they are accurate, cogent, and complete." New York is one of multiple states investigating Verizon copper (see 1606160054).
A federal court said it will hear Charter Communications’ complaint challenging state authority over interconnected VoIP services. In a Tuesday ruling (in Pacer), the U.S. District Court in Minnesota denied a motion by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to dismiss the challenge. Charter’s complaint alleged the PUC overstepped its authority by imposing state regulations for traditional phone services on VoIP services. The case began in March 2013, when Charter transferred 100,000 Minnesota customers to an affiliate that provided VoIP phone service that wasn't certified by the PUC. The agency said interconnected VoIP is a telecom service subject to state regulation, but Charter and intervenor the VON Coalition said it’s an information service and subject only to FCC regulation (see 1605200015). Judge Susan Nelson said the case involves “questions of fact” that are inappropriate for resolution on a motion to dismiss. The PUC’s “attempt to have these issues resolved as a matter of law by comparison to judicial decisions and FCC orders addressing other services ignores the FCC’s case-by-case approach regarding particular services,” she said. Nelson said FCC decisions cited by the PUC -- including the net neutrality order and its USF order requiring interconnected VoIP to contribute to universal service -- didn’t settle the question of whether interconnected VoIP is a telecom or information service, nor did the Supreme Court’s 2005 Brand X ruling. The judge said her ruling Tuesday “simply determines that -- in this highly fact-dependent and complex field -- Defendants have not shown as a matter of law that, taking the allegations of the Complaint as true, Charter Phone is necessarily an ‘offering’ of telecommunications. Any such determination must await further proceedings.” The PUC will “vigorously defend its positions” as the case moves forward, a commission spokesman said. VON Coalition Executive Director Glenn Richards called the order “the necessary first step in what we hope will ultimately lead to a decision that the Minnesota PUC has no jurisdiction over interconnected VoIP." VON advocates for VoIP providers including AT&T, Vonage, Google and Microsoft/Skype. State officials have said that the recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision affirming the FCC net neutrality order may help the PUC fend off the Charter lawsuit (see 1606170049). Charter declined to comment Thursday.
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai asked for state help in "combating waste, fraud, and abuse" in the Lifeline USF low-income telecom support program "since wireless resellers began participating." Pai wrote to members of public utility commissions in California, Oregon and Texas and a Vermont department to alert them to "some of the abuses we have seen with" the FCC National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD). In the letters posted Wednesday, he said he was contacting the four because their states ran their own Lifeline accountability databases and he hoped to learn from their experiences. "NLAD safeguards are critical to preventing duplicate enrollments" in Lifeline, which aren't allowed under the FCC "one-per-household rule," but wireless resellers can override the safeguards, Pai said. "Unfortunately, the NLAD is ripe for abuse," he said, saying the agency proposed a $51 million fine of Total Call Mobile "for its dubious practices" (see 1604080032). The agency's TCM investigation "revealed disturbing trends" in the industry, he said, as wireless resellers completed 5.89 million enrollments October 2014-April 2016 by overriding the safeguards, costing Americans $650 million. Pai said recently $476 million in Lifeline support was questionable and perhaps wasteful (see 1606080062). He asked the state officials to answer questions by Aug. 2 about the Lifeline compliance checks they have in place, potential overrides of safeguards and any remedies they had for potential abuses. The four were: Lisa Hardie, chairwoman of the Oregon PUC; Donna Nelson, chairwoman of the Texas PUC; Michael Picker, president of the California PUC; and Christopher Recchia, commissioner of the Vermont Public Service Department. The FCC recently expanded Lifeline support to broadband service and initiated a shift of Lifeline customer eligibility verification from carriers to a third party (see 1603310056). NARUC and some states have challenged the FCC federal broadband eligible telecom carrier designation mechanism (see 1606030053 and 1607010057).
A New Jersey court affirmed a Board of Public Utilities stipulation for a Verizon broadband deployment requirement. In an opinion Thursday, the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, denied a challenge to the 2014 BPU decision by the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel. A 1993 board requirement required Verizon to provide broadband throughout its territory in New Jersey by 2010, but by 2012 the company had completed 99.4 percent. Verizon and the board negotiated a stipulation of settlement, and in 2014, the BPU approved a new plan whereby Verizon must provide broadband within nine months in any census tract where at least 35 customers with no access to broadband or 4G wireless make a request. The Rate Counsel said the decision was unlawful, arbitrary and capricious, and violated the Administrative Procedure Act because it was approved without a hearing. The regulator and telco said no hearing was required and the board satisfied due process by allowing the public to provide input. Verizon said the Rate Counsel should have raised procedural arguments before the board. In the opinion, the court said its role isn’t to decide whether an administrative agency policy is wise but rather if it’s lawful. “Applying this standard to our review, we conclude the Board's decision to approve the stipulation without an evidentiary hearing was supported by sufficient credible evidence on the record as a whole … and was legally correct, essentially for the reasons expressed by the Board in its order approving the stipulation.” Nobody, including the Rate Counsel, requested a hearing in comments to the board ahead of the decision, the court said: “By affording a period for public comment, the Board provided a sufficient hearing for the public and interested stakeholders to question the stipulation and to urge the Board to adopt or reject it.” The court classified the opinion as “unpublished,” meaning it’s non-precedential. The decision pleased Verizon, which is "eager to move forward and continue making the network investments that have made New Jersey one of the most wired states in the country," a spokesman said. The Rate Counsel disagrees with the decision, Division Director Stefanie Brand said. It's reviewing the opinion and considering next steps, she said. The 30,000 to 40,000 people in New Jersey without broadband access "deserve more of a hearing," she said. It's unclear "how they're going to get broadband or whether they're going to get broadband." The BPU "is satisfied" with the ruling recognizing "the wide deference granted" to the agency, including its interpretations of rules and the regulator's "flexibility in determining the most appropriate proceeding process," an agency spokesman emailed Friday.