Forty-two California government entities joined a lawsuit filed by a whistleblower against AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. Filed in Sacramento County Superior Court under the California False Claims Act, the case alleges the wireless companies overcharged government customers by more than $100 million, said a news release from Constantine Cannon, which represents the intervenors and whistleblower. The action was unsealed by the court Monday. The case alleges the wireless companies ignored two cost-saving requirements included in the master contracts under which California state and local government customers bought wireless services, the release said. It said the contracts required the carriers to determine and report to the government customers which rate plan selections would result in the lowest cost -- called "rate plan optimization" -- and to provide wireless services at "the lowest available cost."

Change to Win is accusing T-Mobile of false advertising and "engaging in deceptive and unfair practices toward consumers," said complaints the organization was planning to file with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Change to Win -- a labor federation with 5.5 million members -- is behind the "Calling Out T-Mobile" effort, which is working with a group of consumer, civil rights and labor organizations to push for reforms, the project’s website says. The complaint said T-Mobile’s no-contract advertising can mislead consumers and that the company’s “inadequate and opaque debt resolution and debt collection processes” exacerbate “misleading advertising” by placing into collections consumers who had no knowledge of inadequately disclosed termination fees. T-Mobile didn't officially comment, but CEO John Legere responded Tuesday to tweets about the accusations. USA Today reported that the New York Attorney General's Office opened an investigation into the complaints, which Legere said on Twitter are misleading. The New York AG didn't comment Tuesday.

Sprint said it will offer free broadband to Illinois public schools. In a Tuesday news release, Sprint said the service will use Wi-Fi hot spots to connect more than 1,600 Illinois students at home. Last year, Sprint pledged to provide wireless broadband connectivity for 50,000 low-income K-12 students across the U.S. as part of a White House initiative, ConnectED. In Illinois, about 54 percent of the students live in low-income households and qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, Sprint said.

In 2014, more than 87 million households -- or three-quarters of all households nationally -- had a broadband subscription, said a report from the Brookings Institution released Monday. The report used 2013 and 2014 American Community Survey data to track broadband adoption rates, while using other census and Internet speed data to show what factors affect metropolitan adoption rates. Only 46.8 percent of households with annual incomes under $20,000 had a broadband subscription in 2014, compared with 88.8 percent of households earning $50,000 or more, Brookings said. While 54.1 percent of those with less than a high school diploma had a broadband subscription, 91.5 percent with a bachelor’s degree or higher did. Low adoption rates also appear among older age groups -- 64.5 percent of individuals 65 years and older -- while those not in the labor force -- 69.7 percent -- subscribe to broadband at lower rates than the national average. Broadband adoption also varies across different U.S. markets, including the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, the report said. Although these areas tend to have higher adoption rates (77.8 percent) than the country as a whole (75.1 percent), rates can still differ by up to 30 percentage points or more in some cases, it said. Tech centers like San Jose (88.2 percent), Seattle (84.8 percent), and Boston (82.7 percent), for instance, exceed the shares in Lakeland, Florida (64.1 percent), Greensboro, North Carolina (64 percent), and McAllen, Texas (58.1 percent), the report said.

FCC efforts to overhaul Lifeline USF mechanisms could run into trouble in Puerto Rico, said a filing by Connected Nation's chief policy counsel on a meeting the chairman of the Telecommunications Regulatory Board of Puerto Rico, two advisers and the counsel had with FCC officials. Lifeline modernization is important for Puerto Rico, which has a broadband adoption rate of 48 percent that is "far lower than any state," the filing said. Only five metropolitan areas in the U.S. have home broadband adoption rates below 50 percent, and three of those are in Puerto Rico, the filing said: "We emphasized strongly that proposed limitations on the eligibility of low-income consumers use to qualify for the program would be devastating for Puerto Rico and create enormous 'qualification gaps,' due to the fact that federal nutrition assistance, school lunch, and other federal assistance programs operate differently in Puerto Rico. The Commission’s effort to modernize Lifeline will not succeed if it does not succeed in Puerto Rico," said the filing, posted Thursday in docket 10-90.

The proposed assignment of the license for KYES-TV Anchorage from Fireweed Communications to Gray Television has the potential for significant negative effects on competition in the Anchorage designated market area, said Alaska Attorney General Craig Richards (R) in a reply comment to the FCC in file No. BALCDT-20151009ADJ. There's no question this assignment would be denied under the FCC's duopoly rule prohibiting common ownership of two TV stations in a single market, Richards said: "Competition is fragile in the Alaska broadcast market. With limited players, a small population and geographic challenges, we strive to keep all the competition available whenever possible."

Cox Communications started deploying gigabit Internet service to residential customers in Northern Virginia -- the first gigabit service in the Washington metropolitan area, said a news release from Cox Thursday. The company has already launched its gigabit service in 10 states and will have gigabit speeds in all of its markets by the end of 2016, it said. The service will cost $99.99 per month when combined with Cox's bundles, it said.

Hanover, New Hampshire, is looking at how it can create voluntary special assessment districts that could finance open-access fiber networks, said Town Manager Julia Griffin during a Community Broadband Bits podcast, hosted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. New Hampshire's current law doesn't allow towns and cities in the state to invest in broadband, Griffin said. But the New Hampshire governor recently signed a bill that allows towns and cities to authorize special assessment districts that let residents and local businesses opt into an assessment that would finance construction and allow them to pay it off over many years, she said. The town is looking at building communications infrastructure underground instead of on poles, Griffin said.

The New York State Public Service Commission said a new area code -- 332 -- was assigned to Manhattan. The new area code is needed to meet the increasing demand for residential and business phone numbers in the New York City borough, said a Tuesday PSC statement. Phone companies are required to file an implementation plan by mid-January and the area code -- which will be an overlay -- will likely be assigned to new phone customers starting in Q2 2017, it said. The North American numbering plan administrator projected Manhattan would run out of available central office codes in late 2017, the PSC said. Once the new area code is in effect, New York state will have 18 area codes.

The California Public Utilities Commission is expected to vote on the transfer of Verizon's wireline services in the state, said the CPUC agenda for Thursday. It said there's no foreseeable cost to rate payers in this transfer and that buyer Frontier Communications will need to give the "highest priority" to upgrading safety in the most critical areas. It said if approved, the agreement requires the telcos to maximize efforts to prevent fires and prepare for anticipated heavy rains.