The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority started a capital improvement project to install radio cable along 100 miles of tunnel walls throughout the underground system, Metro said in a news release Wednesday. The project will result in improved radio coverage for Metro and the Washington, D.C., region's first responders, as well as wireless technology coverage within the tunnels, it said. Engineering and production tests are underway in a 6,000-foot-tunnel segment between the Glenmont and Forest Glen stations in Maryland, to develop project design specifications, it said. Metro will install dual radio and cellular cables on the walls in 100 miles of tunnel, it said: The system will be easier to maintain than the current radio system as critical equipment is moved to where it will be accessible at all times without track outages. The underground portion of the work will be funded through Metro’s capital improvement program and is estimated to cost $120 million, it said.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities signed off on Charter Communications' purchase of Time Warner Cable, Charter said in a news release Wednesday. Garden State approval follows New York Public Service Commission approval in January of Charter's purchases of TWC and Bright House Networks (see 1601270028) and leaves California and Hawaii yet to give regulatory approval. The California Public Utilities Commission's decision is expected by May 12 (see 1602120055). The FCC's unofficial 180-day shot clock for reviewing the purchases stood at 151 days on Wednesday.
The FCC shouldn't take away states' roles in the Lifeline eligible telecom carrier designation process because that could increase waste, fraud and abuse, said the California and Pennsylvania public utilities commissions in FCC filings in docket 10-90 and 11-42. The FCC should also retain the rule that only ETCs are able to obtain Lifeline universal service support reimbursements, the Pennsylvania letter said. The PPUC believes Section 254(e) of the Telecom Act makes it clear that a common carrier must fulfill the condition of being designated as an ETC before it is eligible to receive federal universal service support, it said. "Section 214 is an express acknowledgement that the ETC designation process is within the purview of the states." The CPUC agreed, adding that the FCC should continue to strengthen the ETC designation process.
Increased broadband access is needed for the Smart Cities initiative to succeed in helping in such areas as reducing traffic congestion, fighting crime and making local governments more accessible, NTIA said in a blog post. Expanding broadband access and adoption has been a key goal of NTIA, the post said, but while progress in connecting communities has been good, much work remains. As part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, NTIA invested $4 billion to help upgrade or expand broadband in unserved and underserved communities and to promote digital literacy and broadband adoption, the post said. Those broadband grantees deployed more than 115,000 new or upgraded network miles, connected nearly 26,000 community anchor institutions such as schools and hospitals, and installed or upgraded more than 47,000 personal computers in public access centers, it said. The grant program is nearly complete, but NTIA is still working with communities to overcome broadband challenges, through its BroadbandUSA initiative, Broadband Funding Guide and an Introduction to Effective Public-Private Partnerships, plus other tools that NTIA will release this year, the post said.
Partly in response to a Communications Workers of America petition on hazardous conditions across Pennsylvania (see 1510220054), the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission is holding hearings to look into Verizon’s “neglect of telephone infrastructure,” a CWA news release said Tuesday. The PUC said last week that the case was assigned to Administrative Law Judge Joel Cheskis, who will preside over hearings examining Verizon's maintenance practices and quality of service. CWA documented instances of poles designated for removal that were broken or unstable; portions of old poles suspended in the air; terminals and other equipment not attached to poles; cables hanging perilously close to the ground; plastic coverings and splice boxes placed over damaged cable and other equipment that pose a risk of insect and animal infestation; and other similar conditions. CWA commended the PUC for its decision to hold hearings. CWA represents nearly 5,000 Verizon workers in the state. Verizon didn’t immediately comment.
Washington state's Utilities and Transportation Commission issued a final order Monday fining CenturyLink $2.85 million for the company's role in the April 2014 multistate 911 outage. The FCC Enforcement Bureau found that Washington state was hit hardest during the seven-state outage and later fined CenturyLink $17.4 million (see 1504060050). CenturyLink and UTC staff had proposed the $2.85 million fine as part of a settlement with CenturyLink (see 1509110064) but Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) later pushed for the UTC to levy the statutory maximum penalty of $11.5 million (see 1601070039). The $2.85 million fine “appropriately reflects the nature and extent of the violations, as well as CenturyLink’s actions in the wake of the 911 outage that gave rise to those violations,” the UTC said in the order. “We conclude that the settlement reasonably resolves the issues raised in the complaint ... and the result is consistent with the public interest.” CenturyLink must also regularly report on its 911 circuit reliability and its transition to NG911 (next-generation 911).
"The ethos and behavior" of Altice would mean considerable harm for New York City-area residents and Cablevision employees if it's allowed to buy the cable company, MFRConsulting said in a pair of filings (see here and here) Friday in docket 15-257. One filing cited disputes between Altice and workers at a 2015 acquisition, Portugal Telecom. "Altice takes actions that affect others (possibly with harmful consequences) unilaterally and obliges them to respond and object after the fact ... instead of engaging in good faith negotiations to arrive at an agreed outcome about changes," said MFRConsulting, which has been a critic of both the Cablevision deal (see 1512300024) and previously raised questions about Altice's now-approved buy of Suddenlink (see 1512180035). The other filing submitted comments by New York Department of Public Service staff, plus a debt analysis, to argue claims Altice/Cablevision would bring any net public benefit are groundless, "whereas there are multiple independently identified and validated grounds for expecting it to deliver substantial net detriments." Altice didn't comment.
The FCC Wireless Bureau gave Teach, a nonprofit based in rural Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, a waiver of the commission’s freeze on nonexclusive licenses in the 3650-3700 MHz band. The Teach program, which supports initiatives tied to “broadband availability, GED and higher education attainment, National Career Readiness Certificate, and soft skills certifications, and college and career readiness,” says it learned of the freeze only after getting a grant and buying transmission and customer premise equipment, the bureau said Friday. “TEACH states that it now has secured rights to use space to mount its transmission equipment at all five proposed access points within Muhlenberg County, and is completing coordination in order to apply for five new 11 GHz point-to-point links for network connectivity and backhaul.” The bureau said granting the waiver to Teach “on the basis of its unique circumstances would serve the public interest.”
Despite concerns raised by some commissioners, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners board adopted all four resolutions put forward by the telecom committee Wednesday at the final session of the winter committee meetings in Washington. The resolutions were unanimously adopted by the telecom committee Monday (see 1602150004).
The Telecom Subcommittee and full committee adopted four resolutions over the weekend with very few major changes during NARUC's meeting in Washington. Most of the changes were grammatical with a few word additions and deletions. The resolutions (see 1602040062) include one that focuses on Lifeline overhaul and keeping states involved so as to reduce waste, fraud and abuse. Another would support preserving the fundamental features of legacy services during the IP transition. A third would back streamlined access to rights of way on federal lands to accelerate broadband deployment. The last is on FCC process overhaul. The full NARUC board meets Wednesday to vote whether to adopt the resolutions officially.