Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) will hire a director of information security to lead state efforts to combat hacks on state computer networks, as part of an executive order signed Monday. Otter's executive order also enacts other recommendations of the governor’s Cybersecurity Task Force, including adopting the National Institute of Standards and Technology Cybersecurity Framework and providing employee training and public outreach about cybersecurity best practices. “We learned this past year, firsthand, just how real the threat of cyberattacks is when the Department of Fish and Game’s licensing vendor was hacked,” Otter said in a news release. “Having a comprehensive plan to protect the personal information of our citizens must be a top priority.”

CenturyLink got a 10-year agreement to provide cloud and managed services to state and local governments, it said in a Wednesday news release. CenturyLink signed the contract with the National Association of State Procurement Officers ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Organization. The multistate cooperative procurement led by Utah gives participating state agencies and their authorized political subdivisions including school districts, counties and cities access to cloud services, CenturyLink said.

Ohio Public Utilities Commissioners agreed by unanimous voice vote Wednesday to seek comments on the commission’s five-year review of LEC-to-carrier rules under Ohio Adm. Code Chapter 4901:1-7. Comments are due Feb. 10, replies Feb. 24 in docket 16-2066.

Mediacom launched 1 Gbps Internet service across its entire Iowa footprint of close to nearly a million households in more than 300 communities, it said in a news release Wednesday. Iowa is its first gigabit state, Mediacom said, saying it plans to use the DOCSIS 3.1 Gigasphere platform to bring similar broadband services to almost all of the 3 million homes and businesses it serves in its 22-state footprint. The cable ISP said it expects to announce additional 1 Gbps Internet launches on a market-by-market basis through the rest of the year.

It may not be cost effective for Maryland to adopt the National Joint Utilities Notification System if the utilities owning most of the poles receive a waiver, Verizon said. The Public Service Commission has a rulemaking (docket RM-59) to require NJUNS adoption statewide for facilitating transfer of pole attachments, while permitting pole owners to seek waiver if they have an effective alternative system (see 1606280045). In a letter Tuesday, Verizon proposed that the commission schedule the statewide adoption for 90 days after the agency decides the waiver petitions so the PSC can know in advance how many poles will be exempted. If the commission decides to exempt more than half, it shouldn't require automatic statewide adoption for the remaining owners, the telco said. Instead, staff should work with pole owners to ensure they use an efficient communications system for notification and coordination of pole attachments and transfer, the company said.

Charter defended its lawsuit against Louisville, Kentucky, over the city’s one-touch, make-ready ordinance and what it considers stricter treatment of Charter than of AT&T and Google. In response (in Pacer) Friday to the city’s motion to dismiss (see 1611230020), Charter subsidiary Insight called the ordinance unconstitutional and pre-empted by state law. Kentucky is one state that opted out of FCC jurisdiction over pole attachments, assigning that authority to the Public Service Commission. "If the ordinance were not preempted, it would work an unconstitutional taking of Insight’s network facilities by allowing a third party to take possession of and even damage Insight’s property without just compensation,” Insight said. The company continued to argue for technology-neutral regulation of ISPs: "By forcing Insight alone to bear onerous regulations and obligations from which they have relieved its competitors, Defendants’ actions distort consumer choice, impair Insight’s competitive position in the marketplace, and unconstitutionally infringe its free speech and equal protection rights.”

The California Public Utilities Commission will loan Apple iPads to people with speech disabilities, under an 18-month pilot launched Wednesday, the CPUC said in a news release. The Voice Options project will provide iPads with speech apps through short- and long-term loans at 10 demo centers across the state, CPUC said. Users enter what they want to say into the app and then it’s played over the iPad’s speakers, it said. Individuals may borrow an iPad for 30 days to test the app, then apply for a long-term loan, CPUC said. Long-term loans require verification of disability status by a designated professional, it said.

Charter Communications sought a stay of fresh conditions added last month by the California Public Utilities Commission on the company’s buys of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. The stay should remain until the agency decides Charter’s Dec. 29 application for rehearing (see 1701030019), the operator said in a motion for stay of decision 16-12-070 posted Thursday. Commissioners unanimously gave the deal the green light in May but Dec. 19 revised the order to add some conditions sought by consumer groups in rehearing applications. Without a stay, the company said it “will suffer serious and irreparable harm.” The decision “will deprive Charter of its right to due process, since it imposes ex post facto conditions of which Charter had no notice, nor any meaningful opportunity to consider whether to accept before closing the transaction,” it said.

FCC rules don’t preclude Nashville’s one-touch, make-ready ordinance, the Tennessee city told a federal court Wednesday. The city urged the court to reject AT&T and Comcast lawsuits at the U.S. District Court in Nashville, where the providers argued the ordinance is pre-empted by the FCC’s pole-attachments authority. In reply (in Pacer), Nashville said FCC rules promote quick turn-around of existing pole attachers moving equipment to make poles ready for newcomers. The rules do not, as providers claim, guarantee existing attachers at least 60 days to move the equipment, the city said. Rather, the rule says they must set a make-ready date “no later than” 60 days after receiving notice from the new entrant, Nashville said. While providers claim anything less than 60 days will threaten public safety, they’ve previously negotiated with the Nashville Electric Service to move attachments in half that time, it said. The municipality pointed to the FCC’s support of one-touch, make-ready ordinances in a similar AT&T lawsuit against Louisville, Kentucky (see 1610310053). "The FCC explicitly acknowledged that the 'obstacle' that pole attachment rules seek to overcome is 'removing barriers to infrastructure investment and by promoting competition in the telecommunications market,’” Nashville said. Under the FCC pole-attachment regime, states can opt-out of the federal rules, but Tennessee hasn't. "Plaintiffs badly wish to distinguish this Statement on the basis that Kentucky, unlike Tennessee, is an opt-out state, but the FCC Statement supported Climb Once ordinances without qualification," the city said. "And contrary to Plaintiffs’ arguments, there is clear authority that a Statement of Interest constitutes an official position of the agency and is given the same deference as a legal brief." Providers say their pre-emption claim should be settled in the courts rather than the FCC, but the independent agency possesses the authority to settle the matter, Nashville said.

The California Public Utilities Commission plans soon to address a pole-attachments petition by the Wireless Infrastructure Association, a CPUC spokeswoman said Tuesday. WIA asked the agency to extend right-of-way (ROW) rules of commercial mobile radio services to wireless pole attachments by CLECs. A CPUC-proposed decision released earlier this week denied a similar petition by the California Cable & Telecommunications Association to extend the ROW rules to cable companies; a WIA official said it’s hard to say what that ruling’s implications are for CPUC analysis of the WIA petition (see 1701100062).