AT&T plans to hire about 300 people to fill available jobs in Kansas and Missouri, a Thursday news release from the company said. The positions are primarily technicians and retail support jobs, AT&T said. More than half of the available jobs in Missouri and Kansas are in the Kansas City metropolitan area, it said. AT&T employs roughly 12,000 people in the two states, the company said.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) unveiled a cybersecurity initiative, in his state of the state address Thursday. The state has crystalized plans to create the National Cybersecurity Intelligence Center in Colorado, he said. "This center can be the country’s foremost authority on cybersecurity research and development, training and education," Hickenlooper said. "It will provide real time response capability for businesses to detect, prevent, remediate and recover from threats and hacks." The governor is proposing to build the center in Colorado Springs because the region has a concentration of assets, private sector interest and connection to the University of Colorado Colorado Springs cybersecurity program, he said.
The California Public Utilities Commission's new website went live this week, a CPUC release said. The site aims to improve user interface and navigation, provide better functionality, improve its design and create a more consistent online presence, the agency said Monday. The CPUC released a reformatted Consumer Information Center designed to make it easy for consumers to get information about utility services, file a complaint and comment on CPUC proceedings.
West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D) proposed legislation that would eliminate a sales tax exemption and line up West Virginia's telecom tax with 41 other states. “Once adopted, this legislation will place the same 6 percent sales tax on cellphone and phone line usage -- putting us in step with what is done in the vast majority of other states,” he said in his state of the state address Wednesday. By eliminating the exemption, the state will be able to collect an extra $60 million each year, Tomblin said.
FirstNet Government Affairs and Consultation staff met with the Arkansas Interoperable Communications Executive Committee in Little Rock to discuss the network's progress, plus local needs and concerns, last month, FirstNet said in a blog post. Local officials told FirstNet about their experiences with network capacity and lessons learned, the post said. They also talked about Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s (R) initiative to teach coding in public schools, which could possibly lead to generating apps for the network, the post said. "Given Arkansas’ predominately rural make-up, broadband coverage is a significant priority for the state," the blog post said. "Arkansas has had its fair share of emergencies in the last few years, from tornadoes, to floods, to major ice storms. It was clear from our dialogue that the state knows what is needed during an emergency, especially the ability to communicate effectively and continually."
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers will make cybersecurity, flexibility in federal regulations, FirstNet and information sharing its 2016 federal advocacy priorities, said a NASCIO news release Tuesday. “Cybersecurity is a top concern for state CIOs and with the tremendous growth in data that we anticipate, securing our public networks and the state’s digital assets are and will remain a top priority for NASCIO,” said President Darryl Ackley, secretary of information technology for New Mexico. NASCIO will also work with federal regulators to reduce regulatory burdens that hamper state government, it said. NASCIO also will closely watch the FirstNet process as states move closer to the opt-in/opt-out decision slated for 2017, it said. Some state CIOs are their state's single point of contact for FirstNet and it's crucial that CIOs stay informed of major developments, especially as FirstNet evaluates and awards bids this year in response to its request for proposals, said the group.
Stanley County, North Carolina, is between two of Google's upcoming gigabit cities, but because of how sparsely populated it is, the county will likely not be the next to receive gigabit service, said a blog post from the Coalition for Local Internet Choice (CLIC) in North Carolina. CLIC says it represents public and private interests that support the authority of local communities to make broadband Internet decisions that are important for economic competitiveness. To keep the county's young people and businesses, county officials need to be creative to develop broadband opportunities without breaking the state law that limits local governments' authority to do so, CLIC said. County officials chose to build rather than lease a public safety tower because "aerial space like that is good real estate for multiple purposes," the CLIC said. Connecting the tower with fiber could provide needed backhaul that would help private carriers and provide leasable connections for a private-sector partner, it said. It will help fill in the region’s middle mile gap, CLIC said.
The FCC should rely more on the efficiency measures it adopted in 2014 for state and local governmental decision-making on tower-siting applications, Gregory Vogt said Monday in a blog post for the Free State Foundation. The Montgomery County v. FCC decision (see 1512180045) in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the FCC's 60-day "deemed granted" remedy was constitutional and a "reasonable interpretation of ambiguous provisions" contained in Section 6409(a) of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, the blog post said. Adoption of time limits for reaching decisions in proceedings and "deemed granted" solutions are an important part of achieving more efficient government processes, Vogt said. The "deemed granted" remedy for tower siting applications is laudable, and this type of mechanism would work especially well in proceedings where the original policy issues have already been substantially resolved, such as routine license applications and waiver petitions, he said. "Either Congress, or the FCC itself, should expand upon the FCC's laudable step, now upheld in court, in speeding state and local government antenna siting decisions to encompass speeding up a number of the FCC's own processes," the post said. "This will permit the Commission at all levels to come closer to acting with the speed of business for the ultimate benefit of consumers."
The FCC released its annual Report to Congress on State Collection and Distribution of 911 and Enhanced 911 Fees and Charges for public comment in docket 09-14, said a Friday public notice from the commission. The report covers the collection and distribution of 911 and E-911 fees and charges for the calendar year ending Dec. 31, 2014, and was submitted to Congress Dec. 31, 2015, the notice said. Eight states reported diverting or transferring 911/E-911 fees for purposes other than 911/E-911, the report said. Of those, five -- California, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Virginia and West Virginia -- used a portion of their 911/E-911 funds to support other public safety or emergency response-related programs, it said. Three -- Illinois, New York and Rhode Island -- diverted a portion of their 911/E9-11 funds for either nonpublic safety, or unspecified, uses, it said. The total amount of 911/E-911 funds diverted by all reporting jurisdictions in calendar year 2014 was $223.42 million or about 8.8 percent of total 911/E-911 fees collected, the survey said. Fourteen states reported collecting 911/E-911 fees at the state level, nine reported collecting fees at the local level and 24 states collected fees at both the state and local level, it said. Fees and charges collected on a per-state basis ranged from a low of $8.16 million by Delaware to a high of $213.98 million by Illinois, the report said. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia reported spending 911/E-911 funds on next-generation 911 (NG-911) programs in calendar year 2014, it said. The total amount of reported NG-911 expenditures from the fees was $227.57 million or about 9 percent of total 911/E-911 fees collected, it said. Forty-eight states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, the Navajo Nation and three Bureau of Indian Affairs offices responded to the report year’s data request, the report said. Comments are due Feb. 8, replies March 9.
Time Warner Cable customers in parts of the Carolinas experienced a service outage Thursday caused by a router problem that lasted about 55 minutes, a spokesman emailed us Friday. Because customers in the same region are served by different routers, the outage didn't affect all of the customers in a given region, he said. The outage was the second of its kind in the Carolinas within two weeks, with the prior one Dec. 27, the spokesman said.