States play a key role in national cybersecurity, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said Wednesday. Cybersecurity must be viewed as a “whole-of-state issue that affects every level of government and every facet of our daily lives,” the National Governors Association chairman said at an NGA regional summit in San Jose, a news release recounted. “By 2020, 200 billion networked devices are expected to be connected across the globe,” he said. “Domestic and foreign actors target sensitive information and systems that, if compromised, could have significant economic and political consequences, and result in serious damage to our vital infrastructure.”

New York officials updated the FCC on their efforts to comply with agency conditions for using up to $170.4 million in federal Connect America Fund support in the state's planned broadband subsidy reverse auction (see 1701270019). Empire State Development outlined "potential auction structures New York could implement in the CAF-eligible territories to satisfy the conditions," said an ESD filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90 on a meeting with Wireline Bureau staffers. "The parties discussed whether these structures could facilitate the deployment of broadband infrastructure consistent with the goals of the CAF program." ESD reviewed "certain proposals regarding the rules that would govern the next phase of the State’s ongoing broadband auction." ESD officials had a similar discussion with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, said a filing posted Tuesday.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission set a Thursday vote on Consolidated's buy of FairPoint. The proposed order recommends that commissioners approve the companies' application, said the meeting agenda released Wednesday. Maine, Vermont, New York and New Hampshire are also scrutinizing the wireline deal (see 1702240047).

Public Knowledge is troubled by New York City allegations that Verizon failed to deploy Fios to all residents, as agreed to in its cable franchise agreement (see 1703140043). The pact covers only video service, but Verizon uses the same fiber infrastructure for broadband internet. “Although new broadband deployments are costly and time intensive, broadband providers have a responsibility to comply with their franchise agreements,” said Public Knowledge Senior Policy Counsel Phillip Berenbroick in a Tuesday news release. Given the telco and the city’s disagreement on how to define “homes passed,” Berenbroick said a takeaway for policymakers should be “to clearly define what they mean when describing the availability of broadband service.” In expected federal infrastructure legislation, Congress “should ensure that households and multi-dwelling unit buildings are actually able to subscribe to broadband services that are ‘available’ to them, and that ‘availability’ includes service options that are affordable for even low-income consumers,” he said.

Colorado will soon release a FirstNet request for proposals seeking alternative radio-access-network (RAN) plans if the state decides to opt out of the federal proposal, said Brian Shepherd, the state’s FirstNet single point of contact. The state plans to release the RFP later this month or early April, he said. The state issued a request for information last year and got 10 responses (see 1611100049). “The RFI was more of an informational gathering exercise … to understand the business, financial and operational issues to consider in an alternative RAN implementation and look for alternative models [than] what FirstNet was using,” Shepherd emailed Wednesday. “The RFP will be a request to actually develop and implement an alternative RAN for Colorado. The objective is to have a formalized plan developed by the time the Governor has to make the opt-in/out decision so that we have two fully vetted options to compare.” Also, NTIA published a one-page infographic on the state opt-out process.

Arizona Corporation Commissioners voted unanimously to adopt a state broadband fund for rural schools. At an ACC meeting Tuesday, they approved amendments to state USF rules to set up the $8 million state-matching fund, which will allow Arizona to take advantage of up to $100 million in federal E-rate Category One funding for broadband (see 1701300033). The commission released a proposed order March 7, but the final decision wasn't immediately available Tuesday. In the days leading up to the vote, companies continued to demand limits on fund distribution. In Monday comments, Cox urged the commission to say funding is for last-mile projects only and not for overbuilding. The ACC should make clear that the agency isn't extending its regulatory authority to broadband services, the cable operator said.

Two California mayors said they would support a union strike against AT&T if the contract dispute continues, as 79 elected officials wrote a letter supporting workers. About 17,000 California and Nevada union workers voted to authorize a strike in December, but union leaders have yet to declare one (see 1612160065). “If they did go on strike, then I would support the strike,” Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor (D) said Tuesday on a Communications Workers of America teleconference. Arvin Mayor Jose Gurrola said, “I would support them because they’re standing up for good-paying jobs and good benefits and providing reliable, quality service throughout the state.” Gillmor said Santa Clara residents complain about AT&T landline phone and internet services, and Gurrola said Arvin residents don’t have reliable mobile or high-speed services. “You would imagine that we wouldn't have any issues in our location" in Silicon Valley, Gillmor said. “But we still experience and I receive many complaints from our residents about the lack of quality and in some cases availability of service.” The mayors joined 77 other California and Nevada elected officials writing a letter to CEO Randall Stephenson about reliability problems and job cuts as the company negotiates with workers in the two states. Mayors, city council members and state legislators signed the letter. A spokesman responded that the telco employs more full-time, union employees than any other company in the U.S., hiring 2,700 union employees in California last year. That's across the business and a combination of new jobs and backfill for attrition, a spokesperson told us. It invested about $7.25 billion in California wireless and wireline networks over the past three years, he said. “Our objective is to reach a fair contract that will allow us to continue to provide solid union-represented careers with excellent wages and benefits, just as we have with 28 of our other bargaining units across the country, including [International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers] IBEW-represented landline employees in California who ratified a very similar agreement to the one we’re proposing with the CWA.”

Verizon’s stated plans to invest $1 billion in New York City fiber over four years are no defense for failing to meet a 2014 deadline in the company’s cable franchise agreement to roll out Fios video service to all city residents, a city spokeswoman said Tuesday. Verizon promised the spending after the city sued Monday in the New York Supreme Court. After a notice of default in September (see 1609140058), the city filed a lawsuit claiming Verizon breached its cable franchise agreement. But the telco said it had met the commitment, by its definition of "homes passed." The city asked the court to confirm that Verizon breached the agreement and to compel the company to comply. Verizon plans to “vigorously fight this frivolous lawsuit,” a spokesman emailed. The company will invest another $1 billion in fiber in New York City over the next four years and expand Fios to 1 million more city households, he said. But the city spokeswoman replied that Verizon has failed by three years and counting to meet a commitment made about a decade ago. “Trumpeting a big dollar figure doesn’t change that,” she said. Before the suit, Verizon disputed the city’s complaints in a March 10 letter to Commissioner Anne Roest of the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. “It is disappointing that you are demanding commitments that have no basis in our Agreement, that are beyond anything ever contemplated when we entered into that Agreement, and that are infeasible and counterproductive,” wrote Executive Vice President-Public Policy Craig Silliman. The suit is bad public relations for the company and may hurt the Big Apple’s smart city efforts, 556 Ventures analyst Bill Ho emailed Tuesday. “The surface impact to Verizon is continued negative public relations as the lawsuit continues.” The downside for the city is that it could hold back its smart-city plans, since that requires public-private cooperation, the analyst said. “The current animus from NYC’s mayoral office could make it difficult to realize fully, especially when NYC is in Verizon’s backyard.”

New Mexico should deregulate telecom to spur broadband, said New Mexico Association of Commerce and Industry CEO Jason Espinoza. In a guest column in the Albuquerque Journal, Espinoza supported state legislation (HB-57, SB-53) to deregulate telecom companies. The bills would reduce filing requirements and provide expedited proceedings. Companies seeking deregulation would have to show effective competition on a wire-center basis, with separate determinations for residential and business services. For a wire center to be competitive, it would need to have at least two facilities-based competitors, including wireless or VoIP, operating in all or part of the wire center. Despite increased competition from wireless and VoIP services, regulations remain on landline service, Espinoza said. The bills would align New Mexico with 32 other states that adopted similar measures, while maintaining consumer protections and costing nothing to the state, he said. If it moves forward with the bills, it would join other states eyeing telecom deregulation (see 1703100041).

A Texas dispute over right-of-way fees between Houston and ExteNet pits Texas Public Utility Commission staff against PUC administrative law judges. Commissioners plan to vote March 30 on the ALJs’ proposed decision supporting ExteNet in the company’s dispute with Houston (see 1702280039). The distributed antenna systems (DAS) provider said it doesn’t have to pay fees to Houston because Chapter 283, a local code for franchise fees, sets rates based on a company’s number of access lines -- but as a DAS provider ExteNet has no access lines. ALJs agreed in a proposed decision last month, saying ExteNet backhaul is covered under the franchise agreements of commercial mobile radio service providers who pay the city. But in exceptions filed Friday, Texas PUC staff disagreed, saying commissioners instead should require ExteNet to negotiate franchise agreements with cities to access the right of way (ROW). “While the ALJs attempt to uphold the Legislature's intent of promoting competition under the statute, the Proposal for Decision (PFD) actually creates an anti-competitive result,” staff said. ALJs took too strict of an interpretation of Chapter 283, allowing ExteNet "to enjoy the absurd result of getting to use the City ROW for free without requiring the provider to offer a qualifying service,” it said. Staff rejected possible remedies suggested by the ALJs. Nothing in the record supports one idea to revoke “service provider certificate of operating authority” for providers without access lines, staff said. A proposed rulemaking to explicitly include ExteNet facilities within the definition of access lines could be “a complicated process with many unanswered issues to address,” it said. Houston also rejected ALJs’ proposed decision, saying the judges improperly read the law and commission rules. ALJs’ conclusion that CMRS providers already pay the city for right of way "is at best an overstatement,” the city said. “Neither Houston nor the State has any franchising authority over CMRS providers.” Houston acknowledged it has a license agreement with Verizon, and ExteNet has a contract with the CMRS provider to install wireless facilitates. "Even as to Verizon, ExteNet's proposal isn't to act as Verizon's contractor, but rather to install facilities as a host provider for Verizon's use and any other CMRS providers irrespective of whether or not those other CMRS providers have an agreement with the City for use of the ROW,” Houston said. "If an entity such as ExteNet serves as a contractor for a CMRS provider to install facilities in the City's ROW, it may do so only under the auspices of that CMRS provider's license agreement.”