Reverse a decision to give Verizon more time in the New York Public Service Commission probe of the telco’s copper service quality, the Communications Workers of America said. The secretary for the New York PSC last week granted Verizon’s request to extend its deadline for filing testimony until 45 days after the end of the current East Coast strike (see 1605120048). But in an appeal to the full PSC Wednesday, CWA sought a reversal of that decision, saying the PSC unfairly gave CWA too little time to respond to Verizon's request. “The Secretary has indefinitely mothballed a proceeding essential to the [public] interest, on scant evidence, no inquiry, without affording parties an opportunity to oppose, with no examination of reasonable alternatives that would keep the process going, and with unseemly haste.” Verizon had said it needed the extension because it redeployed the employees who would prepare testimony to filling in for union workers in the East Coast strike. But CWA said Verizon must support its claim. “The Ruling is unsupported by evidence of actual hardship and inability to comply with the original deadlines in the Order,” it said. “Mere assertions by Verizon are legally insufficient to justify an indefinite suspension of the proceedings.” Earlier this week, CWA opposed an extension requested by Verizon in a similar probe in Pennsylvania (see 1605170020).

Californians about to lose copper phone connections with no alternative would have two months to protest, under an amended IP transition bill authorizing telcos to end the legacy service in 2020. The bill’s sponsor, Assemblyman Evan Low (D), submitted a revised AB-2395 Monday. The amended bill increases to 60 days -- from 30 in the original bill -- the number of days a customer has, upon learning that legacy service will be discontinued, to ask the California Public Utilities Commission to review the availability of an alternative service. As before, if the CPUC finds there's no alternative, it could order the telco ending service to continue providing voice service to the customer for 12 months after withdrawal. If after 12 months, there's still no alternative service available, the bill would now require -- rather than merely authorize -- the CPUC to order telcos to continue providing voice service to affected customers until an alternative service is available. The amended bill also specifies in more detail what information a telco must provide in notices to customers that they plan to end legacy service. AB-2395 is pending before the California State Assembly Appropriations Committee. The amendments don’t make the bill much better for consumers, said Regina Costa, telecommunications policy director for The Utility Reform Network in California. “AT&T is using all of the lobbyists that money can buy to try to sell a skimpy, ill-conceived bill intended to side-step the FCC's careful IP Transition process and to prevent the state regulator from doing its job,” she emailed. “The amendments do nothing to fix the fundamental problems with the bill. The clear intent of the bill is to destroy universal telephone service. Millions of Californians will be irreparably harmed if this bill passes.” The bill's supporters say the legislation will speed California toward an all-digital future (see 1604120036).

Mozilla announced $150,000 in grants for education tech projects in Austin, Texas, that take advantage of the city’s Google Fiber network. In August, Austin will join other cities with gigabit connectivity set to receive cash from the Mozilla Gigabit Community Fund, a joint initiative with the National Science Foundation and US Ignite, Mozilla said Tuesday on its blog. Mozilla also will establish Gigabit Hive Austin, a web literacy network of individuals, schools, nonprofits, museums and other local organizations, it said. “Selected from a list of contenders from across the country, Austin stood out due to its existing city-wide digital inclusion plan, active developer community, and growing informal education landscape,” Mozilla Executive Director Mark Surman said. “When you couple lightning-fast Internet with innovative projects in the realms of education and workforce development, amazing things can happen.” In other Mozilla Gigabit cities -- Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Kansas City, Missouri -- projects include real-time water monitoring systems and 3D learning tools for classrooms, Mozilla said. Applications for grants open in August and will be accepted through Oct. 18. Mozilla plans to expand to two more cities over the next two years, it said.

The administration needs a “sustained effort” to help cities better understand “the impact of where science and technology is heading,” Blair Levin, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and chief of staff for then-FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, said Tuesday at the Kansas City Gigabit Summit. “We should also build on the Smart [Cities] initiative done in collaboration with the Departments of Commerce, Transportation, Homeland Security and Energy and the EPA and National Science Foundation,” Levin said. “That effort is great but should not be a one-time event.” Levin called in his written remarks for the creation of a Mayors’ Council of Advisors on Science and Technology “to identify trends, risks, and opportunities for cities.” While providing affordable bandwidth has many public benefits, “from an investment perspective the only ones that matter are those which improve the return for the investor,” Levin said. “The current math does not justify that investment; otherwise we would already have it. The deployment of faster, better, cheaper networks requires a new capital allocation decision, generally by a private sector party. This can be stimulated by a government decision that lowers capital expenditures, operating expenditures, and or risk, and increases potential revenue and competition.” Levin also seeks an update of the tax code, saying there's some bipartisan support. “The chances for such a bill are not high; neither are they non-material. In that light, cities should advocate that any such effort ought to be used to accelerate investment in next generation, long-term infrastructure,” he said. “There are many ways to do so. One traditional way for private investment is accelerated depreciation of certain kinds of investment, such as investment in capital facilities that achieve certain next generation capabilities. This should be broadly defined so that it includes both the underlying fiber but also other elements, such as sensors.”

Pennsylvania shouldn't delay its Verizon copper probe, the Communications Workers of America said in a letter Monday to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. But the state's Office of Consumer Advocate said it took no position on Verizon’s request to pause the proceeding until after resolution of the East Coast strike (see 1605090045). Verizon asked May 6 to delay current dates for the prehearing memorandum deadline (May 20) and the prehearing conference itself (May 26) until 30 days and 45 days after union workers return to work. “CWA initiated this proceeding more than seven months ago, raising serious matters that affect public and employee safety,” the union said. “It is long past time for Verizon to be required to respond to CWA's discovery requests and for this matter to move forward through the filing of testimony, hearings, and decision.” The New York Public Service Commission granted a similar Verizon request for delay of the PSC’s own copper probe (see 1605120048). Verizon, CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers negotiators met for the second time Tuesday in a sesion convened by the Department of Labor (see 1605160002).

Community broadband supporters rejoiced after the Missouri General Assembly stripped municipal broadband restrictions from an unrelated traffic citations bill before passing SB-765 late last week. A House amendment to SB-765, removed in a conference between the House and Senate before final passage, would have prohibited local governments from providing a communications service that competes with one or more service providers in the jurisdiction. CenturyLink and AT&T had supported the plan, but it was opposed by a coalition of community broadband supporters including Google, NATOA, Netflix and the Telecommunications Industry Association. “This was one of the toughest state battles that we’ve fought in years,” said Jim Baller, attorney for the joint opposition. “It took months of constant vigilance, quick and effective reactions to ever-changing language, and hard daily work with key members of the legislature. The most important part was getting across the message that this is not a matter of the public sector competing with the private sector, but of communities retaining the ability to work with willing incumbents, create public-private partnerships, develop their own networks, or do whatever else they believe necessary to acquire affordable access to the advanced broadband networks on which their futures will depend.” State Rep. Lyndall Fraker, who proposed the muni broadband limits in his bill HB-2078, has no “future plans for this bill at this time,” the Republican told us in a Facebook message. “We will just keep monitoring the audits from the state auditors office concerning the cross [subsidization] of municipal utilities.”

With the New York Public Service Commission set to decide by May 20 on the Altice buy of Cablevision, the companies urged the PSC to reject a late motion by Entravision to intervene against the deal. The Latino media company asked Tuesday for an OK to file late comments, saying it just noticed that the concerns of minority and independent programmers hadn’t been raised (see 1605100038), and that the deal would hurt Latino programmers and consumers. “The Commission should reject Entravision’s Request due to the unfairness and prejudice that would result if it were entertained at this very late stage in the proceeding,” Altice and Cablevision said in opposition filed Friday. “This proceeding has been ongoing for six months and has included the active participation of many parties who timely requested party status. The procedural schedule has been well-established and was widely advertised, and the extensive record has long been complete.” Other commenters already have represented Latino consumers and programmers, they said. The PSC has until Friday to issue a final order on the deal (see 1604050059). Altice/Cablevision recently received a green light from both New York City (see 1605110055) and the FCC (see 1605040010). Altice has said the deal will enhance competition, promote network improvements and bridge the digital divide for low-income households.

Frontier Communications pledged to resolve issues of transitioning customers in the state from Verizon to it, in a meeting Wednesday with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Bondi office said in a news release Thursday. “After a lengthy, productive meeting with Frontier executives, I am cautiously optimistic that Frontier disruptions in services will be quickly resolved,” Bondi said. “My office will continue to work with the company on each consumer complaint until they are all appropriately addressed.” Frontier detailed the pledge in a letter to Bondi dated Wednesday. The company promised to prioritize complaints by seniors and the medically disadvantaged, set up a Florida-based customer service number and live chat platform, establish a “SWAT Team” to coordinate rapid response to customer escalations and service outages, and provide credits to every customer who reported any out-of-service issue. The credit amount will be based on the extent of the outage and will appear on the customer’s bill by the end of June with no contact with the company necessary to receive it, Frontier said. The AG’s office said it received 721 complaints about Frontier between March 29 and May 12. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, plus regulators in Texas and California, have also received an uptick in complaints since Frontier completed its $10.5 billion buy of Verizon wireline operations in the three states April 1 (see 1605090043). The California Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee plans a hearing on the Frontier problems Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. PDT, and the California Public Utilities Commission said it plans to hold a workshop on the subject.

FirstNet completed 12 governance body consultation meetings with states preparing for the national public safety wireless network, FirstNet said Friday on its blog. That includes several in the past two weeks with officials of Alaska, California, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont, wrote FirstNet Consultation Director Dave Buchanan. “These meetings have been valuable to FirstNet, allowing us to connect with the states on important issues like the State Plan and the Governor’s decision, and to have a dialog about the key influencers and key issues that the state and FirstNet need to consider over the next year,” he said. “In Massachusetts, for example, we had terrific discussions with [Single Point of Contact] Curt Wood and his team about the State Plan and Governor’s decision process, and learned more about the network topics important to Massachusetts public safety.”

Minnesota should increase funding for its Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant program, said the Institute for Local Self-Reliance Thursday on its blog, as it released a policy brief. The state also should modify the program's rules and criteria, which in their current state may harm cities, it said. The Minnesota program distributed $30 million to 31 rural communities in its first two years, but the state needs to put more money into the program, said the institute, citing an estimate by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton’s Broadband Task Force that the state’s unmet broadband need is $900 million to $3.2 billion. “This funding is essential to greater Minnesota communities that are being left behind,” said Christopher Mitchell, director of the Institute’s Community Broadband Initiative. “The current disbursement is only meeting a fraction of the state’s high-speed Internet needs as it is. The program’s rules must be reconsidered to meet economic development goals for the state.”