Call completion rates should not differ between urban and rural areas, said House Commerce Committee Rural Telecom Working Group co-chairs Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, praising the FCC’s recent steps to address rural call completion problems in a circulating order. “We strongly support practical efforts by the Commission and providers to ensure affordable and high quality telecommunications services in rural America,” they said in a joint statement. “We are encouraged by this good first step and look forward to reviewing the details of the Order.” The FCC should “take this issue up in a timely manner,” they said.

TechPad is starting to install a crowd-funded gigabit fiber network with public Wi-Fi in Blacksburg, Va., said the co-working space dedicated to software startups in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1gDnKPZ). A total of $92,400 was raised to start the gigabit network, said TechPad. Gigabit access is now available to the TechPad startup community and it’s used to power the gigabit Wi-Fi system in downtown Blacksburg, said TechPad. The project’s first phase has completed, giving Wi-Fi access to most of the downtown with gigabit access localized near TechPad, and dozens of gigabit access points will be available at high-traffic locations when the project is completed, said TechPad.

Top airport Wi-Fi provider Boingo Wireless said it plans to buy out Advanced Wireless Group, the No. 2 airport Wi-Fi provider. Boingo did not disclose terms of the deal, which is expected to close in Q4. The deal will give Boingo control of Wi-Fi services at 60 percent of the top 50 airports in North America and at 40 percent of the world’s top 50 airports, making it “an unmatched global leader in airport wireless services,” the company said Thursday. AWG provides public Wi-Fi services at 17 U.S. airports, including Los Angeles International Airport, Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, Miami International Airport, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Detroit Metropolitan Airport and Boston’s Logan International Airport. Boingo will now be able to “accelerate new products to market that enhance the value of the wireless networks with actionable business data and improve the experience of passengers” (http://bit.ly/1gD96IA), it said.

A cybersecurity framework will work only if “we all understand the costs and benefits of adoption,” USTelecom Vice President-Industry and State Affairs Robert Mayer planned to tell a group of security officials and professionals Thursday, at a Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Protection summit in Washington. Officials leading the implementation of the administration’s executive order “are making good-faith efforts to listen and to engage industry in a constructive dialogue,” he said, according to a copy of prepared remarks he provided us. “This is not to say that we don’t have challenging conversations or that we see eye-to-eye on every issue. But we seem to be listening to each other and working together to define a relationship that will only become more critical over time.” Mayer said the nature of the threats and the country’s growing reliance on infrastructure would make it difficult to claim victory in the cybersecurity area. “It is one thing to have a document that is well-written and well-organized, and quite another thing to have a framework that can be effectively implemented and evaluated across multiple enterprises in 16 critical infrastructure sectors,” he said.

Livingston County, Mich., was certified as a Connected Certified Community under Connected Nation’s Connected Community Engagement Program, said Connect Michigan in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/15FQdmV). Since spring 2012, Connect Michigan has been working with Advantage Livingston’s Placemaking Committee to review current broadband coverage and adoption data, conduct surveys of local public institutions, introduce new broadband providers, complete the program’s broadband assessment and develop an action plan, said Connect Michigan. The Michigan Public Service Commission commended Livingston County for becoming the fifth community in Michigan to become certified, said the PSC (http://1.usa.gov/19i7lhe).

Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn circulated an NPRM on AM radio revitalization. The FCC is granting experimental authorization for all-digital AM operation “and improving protection to AM stations from potential re-radiators and/or pattern disturbances,” she said in prepared remarks this week at the NAB Radio Show (http://bit.ly/17MpQeq). The NPRM proposes a one-time filing window for AM licensees and permittees, “which will allow each to apply for one new FM translator station to fill in its service area,” she said. It proposes to relax the AM daytime community coverage rule “to allow existing AM broadcasters more flexibility to propose antenna site changes,” she said. There also is a proposal to eliminate the AM “ratchet” rule, which requires an AM station to “ratchet back” its nighttime signal to reduce interference to certain other AM stations, Clyburn said. The NPRM seeks to modify AM antenna efficiency standards “by reducing minimum effective field strength values by approximately 25 percent, thus allowing the use of shorter AM antennas,” she said. Clyburn said the NPRM also invites comment on additional proposals or rule modifications that could help to revitalize the AM band. Commissioner Ajit Pai said “the item outlines many promising ideas for improving the service offered by AM broadcasters and reducing the regulatory burdens placed on AM stations.” Last year, Pai called for revitalization of the AM band (CD Sept 20/12 p6).

The Iowa Utilities Board needs to maintain its role in interconnection agreements between service providers during and after the IP transition, said service providers in post-workshop comments. The IUB held a workshop Sept. 10 to get industry and public advocates’ responses to questions about its telecom regulation (CD Sept 11 p16). The evolution from TDM to IP technologies does not reduce or eliminate the role of state regulators in defining and promoting public policy objectives, said the Iowa Telecommunications Association (http://bit.ly/1btODbc). VoIP should be treated like any other voice telecommunications service, and a difference in regulatory activity could create “an artificial competitive advantage based on the technology used,” said ITA. The shift to IP networks does not “relieve states of their duty” to promote interconnection regardless of technology, said Sprint and tw telecom in joint comments (http://bit.ly/1eVv0Ly). CenturyLink said technology is not a service “but instead an enabler of services,” in its comments (http://bit.ly/159kjLF). The IUB’s retail regulation of the communications marketplace “should not vary based on technology” and “any ongoing regulation should be provided equally to all providers,” said CenturyLink. In terms of codes, ITA said Iowa Code statute 476.95 needed to be updated for effective broadband deployment in rural and urban areas. T-Mobile disagreed in its comments (http://bit.ly/19kuz4Z), saying the code does not need to change because it has been “successfully implemented” to promote and further competition. Iowa Code statute 476.101 needs to be modernized to “reflect the presence of effective competition in most service areas” and to show any distinctions for “imbalanced competitive advantage to CLECs,” said ITA. CenturyLink said the revamp process needs to be completed before determining the ongoing role for IUB in monitoring competition, and Iowe Code statute 476.101 should be addressed later in workshops or rulemaking. Consumers need to continue addressing their complaints with service quality to the IUB, said the Iowa Office of Consumer Advocate (OCA) in its comments (http://bit.ly/16rq1c6). The IUB’s consumer complaint jurisdiction “not only allows the Board to address problems, it is often the only clue as to where service or infrastructure problems lie,” said the OCA. The IUB does not need material legislative changes because the technology has evolved from circuit-based to IP-based infrastructure, said T-Mobile in its comments. “Carrier networks have been evolving for decades,” said T-Mobile.

Application developers should be able to develop without the fear of patent assertion from patent holding company Lodsys, said the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Application Developers Alliance in an amicus brief filed with the U.S. District Court in Marshall, Texas (http://bit.ly/1esRXo4). Lodsys is suing Apple and others for infringements of its patents; Apple has argued the patents it licenses should also cover its app developers, EFF said. The two advocacy groups pushed the court to decide the case to provide certainty in the app developing community, EFF said.

Ruth Milkman appears likely to be named FCC chief of staff after Tom Wheeler becomes chairman, several industry officials told us. “I keep hearing it’s Ruth,” said a former eighth-floor adviser. “It’s hard to find people to come in in a second term and Ruth is already there and has a lot of experience and is well liked by most everyone.” Several observers said the chief of staff has a broad portfolio and, unlike someone from outside the agency, Milkman would not have to recuse herself from working on some issues. She has had two stints as Wireless Bureau chief, from August 2009 to June 2011, and again since June 2012. In the 1990s, she was senior legal adviser to then-FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.

Time Warner Cable and Common Sense Media will offer new tools for parents to ensure children use the Internet safely for school work, TWC said in a Thursday release (http://bit.ly/1esT9YN). At TWC.com/WebSafety, the groups will provide videos, tools and other materials on how to safely navigate the Internet, including a back-to-school guide, it said.