State chief information officers should write IoT policies, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) said in a policy brief Wednesday. Most states are discussing IoT only informally, if at all, NASCIO said. “Without specific policy on IoT, states will be caught unprepared to deal with the myriad of issues that can arise with increasing connectedness.” Issues include security, privacy, accessibility, financing, legislation and data management and standardization, it said. States aren’t as far along as cities in developing an IoT road map, but a “smart state” can benefit like a “smart city,” it said. “While a state may not have a bus system to connect to an app, states may use sensor data, mobile platforms, or analytics software for healthcare, transportation or public safety.”

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear Sprint’s appeal of a New York state lawsuit seeking $300 million from the company, the high court said Tuesday. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman had alleged the wireless company failed to collect more than $100 million taxes from customers in the state. The New York Appeals Court denied the carrier’s bid to dismiss the case in October (see 1510210067). The Supreme Court action pleased Schneiderman. The AG “looks forward to a complete victory in this ongoing case against Sprint over alleged tax violations,” said his spokesman. The Supreme Court ruling is "a procedural step in the process" and "the merits of the case have not yet been heard," a Sprint spokeswoman emailed. "The Supreme Court declined to hear an interim appeal on the interplay between a federal statute and the state statute. The case now goes back to the trial court for the parties to engage in discovery and other pretrial proceedings."

The National Association of State 911 Administrators released tools and resources to support regionalization of 911 public safety answering point systems. Resources available to state and local 911 managers on a new webpage include case studies and examples of incentive grants and intergovernmental agreements. “The FCC’s Task Force on Optimal PSAP Architecture approved a report in January 2016 which, among other things, encouraged regionalization as an effective way to implement Next Generation 911,” said NASNA President Harriet Miller-Brown. “NASNA has built on the January report by collecting and making publicly available tools and information to help state and local 911 administrators take the next step.”

Union and government officials in New York supported proposed conditions for Altice’s $17.7 billion takeover of Cablevision. The New York Public Service Commission sought comments in May on conditions recommended by the advisory staff for the Department of Public Service (see 1605200070). The Communications Workers of America, which initially opposed the deal, said Tuesday that PSC approval with the proposed conditions would meet the interests of its members and the wider public. State Assemblyman Mark Gjonaj (D) said the recommended conditions “build on Cablevision's legacy of investment in the Bronx by requiring Altice to offer faster broadband speeds and a low cost broadband option to lower income New Yorkers.” Another Democratic Assembly member, Didi Barrett, said she's pleased the conditions address broadband deployment in rural areas. In comments dated May 24, the supervisor of Babylon, a New York town hit hard by Superstorm Sandy, applauded conditions on storm preparedness and response. But Entravision restated its concerns the deal will hurt Latino consumers and programming providers (see 1605100038). “The public interest demands that Altice be required, as a condition of merger, to engage relevant minority groups in the Cablevision service areas to develop a memorandum of understanding similar to the MOU in effect in California and before the FCC,” the Latino media company said. Altice and Cablevision accepted the advisory staff’s proposed conditions with one minor clarification, while noting in joint comments that the conditions are “more expansive” than the companies’ voluntary commitments. It’s time to approve the deal, they said. “The record in this proceeding has been developed carefully and fully, and Joint Petitioners believe that the Commission now possesses ample information to evaluate the merits of the proposed transaction and find it to be in the public interest.” The PSC is to rule on the deal June 16.

Qwest was within its rights when it compelled arbitration of interconnection agreements with a CLEC, a federal appeals court confirmed. In an opinion Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed two district courts’ judgments in favor of Qwest and state regulatory commissions in Arizona and Oregon. North County Communications, a CLEC, sued incumbent Qwest for seeking arbitration at the Arizona Corporation Commission and the Oregon Public Utility Commission of the carriers’ interconnection agreements . The CLEC said the commissions shouldn’t have forced North County into binding arbitration on Qwest’s request. But district courts in the two states supported each commission’s authority to arbitrate the agreements. The 9th Circuit agreed, saying in Tuesday’s order that the language in Qwest and North County’s previous 1997 interconnection agreement gave each party the power to compel arbitration by state commissions if negotiations between the parties failed to resolve their disputes. The 9th Circuit also rejected North County challenges to six provisions in the 2011 interconnection agreements. The court said the commissions didn’t violate the 1996 Telecom Act, nor were their actions arbitrary or capricious.

The FCC invited applicants for distributing deaf-blind equipment in Florida and Washington under its National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program (see 1605100041). Applications are due June 10, said a Thursday notice. It said the certified distributors of deaf-blind equipment for those two states recently withdrew.

California appropriators approved a measure to dissolve the state’s telecom regulator but held a controversial IP transition bill at a hearing Friday. The California State Assembly Appropriations Committee stamped “Do pass” on ACA-11, which erases the text that established the California Public Utilities Commission and requires the legislature to restructure the body or reassign many of its duties to other agencies (see 1605260046). The CPUC hasn’t taken a position on the constitutional amendment, which requires two-thirds approval by both houses of the Legislature, then a ballot vote by Californians in November. Meanwhile, the committee decided to hold in committee AB-2395, which would authorize telcos to discontinue legacy telephone service in 2020 (see 1605180075). That makes it unlikely to get a floor vote by the end of this legislative session. AT&T supported the bill but consumer groups and workers, including The Utility Reform Network and Communications Workers of America, opposed it. “We’re incredibly disappointed in the decision to hold AB-2395, said Ben Golombek, chief of staff to Assembly member Evan Low, the Democratic sponsor of the bill. "The loser with this outcome is the consumers of California who will be stuck with a more expensive, more unreliable and more environmentally wasteful network for years to come."

The Ohio Public Utilities Commission swore in Asim Haque as chairman Wednesday, the PUC said in a news release. Gov. John Kasich (R) appointed him in May; Haque will have a five-year term ending April 10, 2021. He has been an Ohio commissioner since 2013 and previously was an attorney handling energy, utilities and auto manufacturing issues.

The New York State Senate passed a bill to impose criminal penalties for bots used to scoop up tickets from websites and resell them at a premium. Because of bots, events sell out quickly even though tickets haven't been bought by real people. Ticket bots are already illegal software under New York’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Law. S-6931 strengthens penalties. It also requires StubHub and other ticket resale platforms to clearly disclose ticket face value alongside the resale price. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman proposed the measure (see 1604280040) and celebrated Senate passage in a statement Tuesday: “Ordinary New Yorkers deserve a fair shot to see their favorite performers and teams, and protection from those that use illegal software to rig the system. ... I call on the Assembly to pass similar consumer protections.” S-6931 moves next to the New York State Assembly. Earlier this month, members of Congress introduced a bipartisan House bill that would tackle the ticket bots issue at a national level (see 1604290055).

New Jersey gave a green light to Altice’s $17.7 billion takeover of Cablevision. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities OK’ed a settlement among the BPU, the parties and the New Jersey Division of the Rate Counsel that includes conditions for maintaining customer service, establishing a low-income broadband service, upgrading the network and protecting jobs in the state. The conditions are similar to what was proposed last week in New York state (see 1605200070), which is the last remaining regulatory OK required by Altice and Cablevision. PBU President Richard Mroz said he's confident the settlement will benefit Cablevision customers and employees, as well as seniors and families with children. Under the conditions, Altice will be prohibited from cutting customer-facing jobs for two years. It will upgrade network speeds to 300 Mbps by no later than year-end 2017. Within 15 months of the deal closing, it will provide 30 Mbps broadband to low-income households with no data cap, modem fee or self-installation charge for $14.99 monthly. It will double the download speed of Cablevision’s $24.95 low-cost plan to 10 Mbps within 120 days of closing and continue to sell the service for two years. Also, the ISP must offer a broadband product without a data cap for three years. In a declared emergency like Superstorm Sandy, Altice must provide free Wi-Fi and access to hyper-local news and weather to all New Jersey residents. It must partner with utilities to speed power restoration, provide backup customer support, and have network redundancy and backup powering ready to go. And it must write a storm readiness communications plan, including public service announcements. Altice agreed to “abide by and honor any final orders with respect to any pending appeal or declaratory judgement, whether issued by the FCC or by a court of competent jurisdiction,” a condition said. The settlement includes a “most favored nation” clause ensuring that New Jersey doesn’t get a worse deal than any other state that approved the transfer of control. Cablevision has 783,058 customers in New Jersey. “Altice is pleased with the approval order by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities for the acquisition of Cablevision, which recognizes the benefits that the proposed merger will bring to consumers in New Jersey,” an Altice spokeswoman said. “The transaction is expected to close on track in the second quarter.”