Verizon’s 5G deal with San Diego benefits the company more than the city, the Communications Workers of America said Thursday, releasing a report on the April 2019 small-cells partnership. Verizon got discounted leases on public property and expedited permitting reviews for 10 years in exchange for “limited community benefits” that are “are only unlocked if the agreement’s unrealistic benchmarks are met,” CWA said. Verizon isn’t transparent about what workers it’s contracting, the union said. “It is particularly troubling that the City of San Diego does not track which subcontracted companies are working in its rights-of-way,” said San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Keith Maddox: “Subcontracted workers often earn lower wages and are subject to more dangerous working conditions.” CWA Local 9509 Secretary-Treasurer Orlando Gonzalez urged the city to hold a hearing. “With a massive budget shortfall expected next year, these types of corporate handouts are just unacceptable,” he said. “The Verizon deal does nothing to address the city’s digital divide and homework gap, which COVID-19 has shown is a critical issue.” The San Diego partnership will benefit local residents and businesses for years, a Verizon spokesperson responded. The company spent $1.5 million on an inventory of city-owned streetlights, committed to $400,000 to deploy lights on 200 poles in underserved communities, gave $100,000 to a San Diego digital literacy effort and shipped 500 smartphones to police and 50 tablets to the fire department, he said. "Verizon is at the beginning of a four-year build and as we obtain more permits, we are actively working and excited to continue expanding our 5G [ultra wideband] network to neighborhoods across San Diego." San Diego didn’t comment Thursday.
Indiana disagrees with "some aspects" of a state Supreme Court ruling that individuals may refuse to unlock their phones for law enforcement to avoid self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment, a spokesperson for Attorney General Curtis Hill (R) said Wednesday. "We are carefully reviewing it to determine how it will impact future criminal investigations involving electronic devices." The court ruled against the state Tuesday in Katelin Seo v. Indiana (18S-CR-00595), reversing a trial court that held Seo in contempt for refusing to unlock her iPhone. “By unlocking her smartphone, Seo would provide law enforcement with information it does not already know, which the State could then use in its prosecution against her,” wrote Chief Justice Loretta Rush, who seemed to bristle at April 2019 oral argument in which Indiana said individuals may not refuse (see 1904180025). Indiana argued if the compelled act doesn't give the government additional information, the result is a “foregone conclusion” not protected by the Fifth Amendment, but Rush said that exemption doesn’t apply in this case and possibly others involving smartphones due to their “unique ubiquity and capacity." Justices Mark Massa and Geoffrey Slaughter dissented. The case “was mooted when the underlying criminal case was dismissed,” wrote Massa. “And this now-moot case shouldn’t be resolved under our ‘great public interest’ exception because doing so could -- in violation of the core principles of federalism -- leave our Court as the final arbiter of our nation’s fundamental law.” State courts have split on smartphone encryption. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court sided with law enforcement, while the Pennsylvania Supreme Court supported Fifth Amendment protections. The New Jersey Supreme Court held argument on a similar case in January (see 2001210053). The Constitution's individual privacy protection is important, but the document "also recognizes society’s equally important interest in investigating crime and holding criminals responsible," said the Indiana AG spokesperson said. "These legal issues are difficult, and courts all across the county are struggling with how to strike the right balance when modern technology is concerned. Our argument in this case has always been that police followed the proper procedures to obtain a court order and Ms. Seo should have also followed proper court procedures rather than first openly flaunting her contempt for the trial court." The Electronic Frontier Foundation is “gratified by the ruling, and we’re watching for courts in New Jersey, Oregon and elsewhere to continue the trend of protecting against compelled decryption,” blogged Senior Staff Attorney Andrew Crocker.
Two public safety associations canceled in-person conferences Tuesday. APCO canceled its Aug. 2-5 conference (see 2006230039) less than one week after saying it was moving forward with the Florida event, and after some public health experts raised concerns (see 2006190035). Since Thursday's statement, “several developments occurred,” including Orange County’s mayor requiring face masks, Florida reporting a record-high 4,049 new COVID-19 cases Saturday and the state health department recommending Saturday people don’t attend events with more than 50 people, wrote APCO CEO Derek Poarch in an email to members and on the event’s webpage. Full refunds will be issued, and the group is planning for APCO 2021, Aug. 15-18, in San Antonio. The National Emergency Number Association, which earlier postponed its June 13-18 conference to Sept. 24-29 in California, said the event will now be held virtually the week of Sept. 21. “Given the still-uncertain trajectory of the pandemic, and considering that conference participants would be coming from all over the country and around the world, NENA concluded that canceling the in-person meeting was the only safe and responsible action,” it said. NENA was in touch at least weekly with Long Beach "ever since the first date-change announcement was made," and Tuesday's announcement "reflects weeks of discussions and planning," a spokesperson added. APCO didn’t comment beyond the announcement. Florida’s health department didn’t comment.
T-Mobile is playing fast and loose with job promises related to buying Sprint, Communications Workers of America President Chris Shelton responded Tuesday to the carrier's challenge of the California Public Utilities Commission’s mid-April conditional OK. Two consumer advocacy groups joined the union in slamming T-Mobile’s Monday petition in docket A.18-07-011 to modify conditions on jobs, speeds and deployment. The request follows reported layoffs at the carrier. Continued fighting between T-Mobile and the CPUC might portend litigation over state wireless authority (see 2005010048).
As broadband bills advance in states responding to the coronavirus, former acting and possibly next FCC Chair Mignon Clyburn said states will be at the “epicenter” of recovery work. Monday at the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities virtual conference, the Democrat sought an “uplifting and all-inclusive recovery” that would include a long-awaited USF contribution revamp and increasing Lifeline’s $9.25 monthly government-funded discount.
While most associations have dropped plans for in-person summer conferences due to COVID-19, APCO is forging ahead with plans to meet Aug. 2-5 in Orlando. It's even offering a $100 credit to attendees, to be used at next year's conference. Infection rates are on the rise in Florida, and experts warned against holding the conference live.
States should stop local governments from giving special tax and other privileges to municipal networks without extending the same to private networks, Wichita State University Institute for the Study of Economic Growth Executive Director Theodore Bolema wrote Thursday in a Free State Foundation paper. Bolema said a Michigan bill (HB-5673) by Rep. Donna Lasinski (D) to expand local government taxing authority for muni networks would tilt the playing field. But the article supports a “monopolist industry” effort to put down a grassroots initiative “to develop the internet access they desperately need and industry refuses to provide,” responded Kitsch’s Mike Watza, a telecom attorney for Michigan local governments. The bill “allows local folks to organize through their local township offices, to assess a particular area ... for the purpose of financing the development and provision of” affordable broadband, he emailed Thursday. Michigan Broadband Cooperative President Ben Fineman emailed, "The assertion that townships (who are the only government entities affected by HB 5673) want to compete with incumbent providers is laughable." Only townships that have significant populations without broadband access would tap the mechanism, he said. "Rural townships running on a few part time staff are certainly not looking for more work, but they are looking for tools to address what has become the number one concern for many rural residents." Fineman doesn't expect a quick hearing on HB-5673 because state legislators' political priority now is the pandemic, he said. Lasinski didn’t comment.
The California Senate Appropriations Committee cleared Thursday SB-1130 to raise the minimum speed standard to 25 Mbps symmetrical (see 2005270037), per unofficial results released by the committee. Under current law, California Advanced Services Fund support may only go to areas where no facilities-based provider offers 10/1 Mbps. A recent amendment reduced an earlier version’s proposed requirement that subsidized projects deliver 100 Mbps symmetrical, changing that to at least 25/3 Mbps. Numbers could still change since it’s “not a finished product,” said Rural County Representatives of California Legislative Advocate Tracy Rhine. The committee held SB-1058 that would require ISPs file emergency operations plans for disasters and emergencies and SB-1069 for telecoms to report location and status of infrastructure and performance of emergency alert messages.
Louisiana’s second try at an electric cooperative broadband bill is expected get a House Commerce Committee vote Monday and be on the floor Wednesday, SB-10 sponsor Sen. Beth Mizell (R) emailed Wednesday. “We are running short on time and I am looking at possible options to a quicker passage over there.” Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) vetoed Mizell’s earlier SB-406 due to amendments that restricted co-ops to unserved areas (see 2006160051). Edwards supports SB-10 as drafted, so Mizell “requested all colleagues to leave it untouched by any new amendments,” she said. The bill would ask internet providers and co-ops to next year report any deployment impediments, which “would allow for legislation for next session to address any concerns they bring up,” she said.
State broadband offices are eyeing COVID-19 relief funding, Colorado and Tennessee officials said Wednesday on a Fiber Broadband Association webinar. Money could come from Tennessee’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Cares) Act allocation, and Gov. Bill Lee (R) is evaluating state needs, said Department of Economic and Community Development Broadband Director Crystal Ivey. Tennessee may use for broadband part of its allocation of funding that U.S. Housing and Urban Development received from the act, she said. The Institute of Museum and Library Services also received money and is distributing it among states, with Tennessee libraries applying for grants to pay for hot spots and videoconferencing equipment, Ivey said. Colorado is evaluating using funding from the Cares Act’s Educational Stabilization Fund, said Colorado Broadband Office Director-Federal Broadband Engagement Teresa Ferguson. Colorado may apply for some of the $1.5 billion received by the Economic Development Administration that may be used for broadband deployment, she added. The broadband office is “looking at outreach, public engagement and data collection platforms” to reassess how best to spend resources, Ferguson said. It needs more federal funding and better maps, she said. “The states can't print money. The feds can.”