Twelve people were arrested in connection with the alleged theft of underground copper cable in south and central Florida, said a news release Tuesday from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. FDLE officials said the thefts made communications infrastructure vulnerable to failure, with at least one theft damaging adjacent fiber cables that carry 911 communications. The investigation began in October 2014 after a request from Florida Power and Light, the release said. After allegedly stealing the copper cable, the suspects sold the copper to metal recycling facilities across Miami-Dade, it said.
A bill that would create the Next Generation Network Initiative Grant Fund to help municipalities move broadband deployment forward was introduced in the Massachusetts House Joint Telecom, Utilities and Energy Committee Tuesday. HB-2854 would issue grants to cities for research and planning to develop gigabit-speed networks throughout Massachusetts. The funds from Next Generation Network also would be used to evaluate municipal broadband offerings and research the entrance of private market players that are committed to providing next generation broadband services, the bill said. Funds would also be able to be used to match other public and private funding sources. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Evandro Carvalho (D).
Colorado voters in 43 municipalities approved ballot measures to opt out of the state's restrictive broadband law that prevents municipalities from creating public/private partnerships to build out fiber (see 1510300041), said the Institute for Local Self Reliance. ILSR said Colorado Mountain College also asked six municipalities to allow the school to provide its own Internet if necessary, and they all passed the measure. Last year, nine municipalities passed similar ballot measures, ILSR said.
Many cities are investing in Wi-Fi, said a study released Tuesday. The Wireless Broadband Alliance white paper by its Connected City Advisory Board said more than 75 percent of respondents, spanning 44 cities over 6 continents, plan to invest in Wi-Fi. Cities need to address the lack of expertise in developing and deploying citywide Wi-Fi, how to manage public expectations and user experience and the choice of technology to use, the board said. It was formed in July and is made up of chief information officers from cities such as Barcelona, Calgary, Dublin, Liverpool, Mexico City, New York, Singapore, San Francisco, San Jose and the governments of Delhi and the Philippines.
The Highlands Fiber Network lowered the price of its gigabit Internet service, which it has offered since 2011, from nearly $200 to $70 a month because there's such demand for faster fiber, HFN said in a news release. The Seattle-based fiber Internet company serves the Issaquah Highlands community.
The nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN) could improve interoperability, capacity and reliability of public safety responses in states like Pennsylvania in cases of blizzards, gas explosions, riots, manhunts and hurricanes, a FirstNet blog post said Monday. Pennsylvania Statewide Interoperability Coordinator Mark Wrightstone earlier this year said the state's land mobile radio system, PA-StarNet -- which is used by more than two dozen agencies in Pennsylvania -- allows both voice and data traffic, uses 800 MHz trunked digital technology and services more than 25,000 subscriber devices, the post said. Wrightstone said that PA-StarNet has “extensive experience” with interoperable public safety communications, making it “ideally suited to coordinate Pennsylvania’s response to the federal FirstNet program and its mission to improve radio communications for first responders.”
A portion of money from universal service support should be invested in middle-mile infrastructure to be owned and operated by a neutral administrator, Alaska Communications Systems said an ex parte FCC filing posted Monday in docket 10-90. ACS responded to a joint letter filed in the docket by the Alaska Telecommunications Association (ATA) and member company General Communication Inc. (GCI). With populations ranging from a few dozen to a few hundred, it would be "simply impossible" to deliver to some Alaskan communities services that are at an affordable and reasonable rate and that are comparable to the already existing ones in more densely populated areas of the state, ACS said. The proposal from ATA and GCI is, at best, incomplete, ACS said. To close the broadband gap in the Alaskan bush, the FCC needs to take "bolder action" than just preserving the status quo support flows to eligible telecom carriers, ACS said. Whatever approach the FCC takes needs to relieve the shortage of available, affordable middle-mile options that don't exist in the Alaskan bush today, ACS said.
The California Public Utilities Commission mobile testing project measuring broadband coverage and speeds, CalSpeed, was deemed a success by Rob Osborn, a CPUC analyst. The project has had more than 9,000 tests performed since it was launched two years ago, he said. The latest changes include the launch of an iPhone app planned for December, an interactive map that is updated daily and a streaming video scorecard, Osborn said.
The ongoing battle over VoIP authority heated up between Charter Communications and the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission when Charter filed a complaint against the PUC in U.S. District Court in Minnesota. Charter said the PUC overstepped its authority by trying to impose the state regulations for traditional phone services on VoIP services. The case began in March 2013, when Charter transferred overnight 100,000 Minnesota customers to an affiliate, Charter Advanced Services, which provided VoIP phone service that wasn't certified by the PUC (see 1508210040). Minnesota Commissioner John Tuma previously said the biggest concern with the service switch was that Charter transferred customers, without notifying them, to an entity that doesn't have the certificate to run a phone service in the state and that the company is no longer paying Telecommunications Access Minnesota and Telephone Assistance Program fees (see 1509180059). Neither Charter nor the PUC commented Friday.
The count for Colorado municipalities voting on whether to opt out of the state broadband law (see 1507100053) has increased to 43, said a post from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance's Community Broadband Networks webpage Friday. The running tally has jumped over the past few weeks, but now includes 17 counties, 26 towns and at least three school districts, it said.