The Communications Workers of America (CWA) announced Tuesday a new TV ad slamming Verizon for not building out enough FiOS in New York City, a news release from the union said. The commercial's release comes a day before the city council holds a hearing about the issue. The ad centers on New York City's audit of the FiOS rollout that says Verizon failed to meet its promise to deliver the service to everyone in the city who wanted it, the release said. Verizon has deployed fiber in every city neighborhood, a company spokesman said Tuesday. "The Union’s true goal behind this ad campaign is to try and force the company to hire more employees, which will increase membership and revenues for the Union," he said. "It’s the wrong approach. Rather than attacking the company that offers excellent jobs to more than 37,000 CWA members, the union would be far better off trying to work with us on a new contract that’s fair to our employees, our customers and would help position the company for success in the future.”

Great Plains Communications is expanding its network in Nebraska and Des Moines, a news release from the company said Thursday. Great Plains owns the largest fiber network in Nebraska, it said. The Des Moines route will offer up to 100 Gbps, the release said. The network will extend from the Nebraska market into the Des Moines carrier hotel, connecting with regional and national carriers, it said.

The New Jersey Rate Counsel again asked the state Board of Public Utilities to open an investigation into Verizon's transition from copper to fiber, in reply to Verizon's response to the rate counsel's initial request for an investigation in docket TO15060749. The counsel disagrees that Verizon is offering better services on its fiber network than on the copper one, and the Oct. 8 comments said the board should review the way the company is doing its transition. It also said customers are receiving reduced service at an increased cost because during prolonged power outages those with fiber have to have backup batteries in order to keep the service functioning. The counsel also questioned the reliability claims Verizon makes about its fiber network, saying there have been a lot of consumer complaints about disconnected calls and clicking and echoing during calls, and said that an investigation should be held to find out if that is an isolated problem or a general one.

The East Central Vermont Community Fiber-Optic Network (ECFiber) added fiber-to-the-home routes in September, it said in a news release. The network is available in parts of the towns of Randolph and Norwich, and the projects were partially funded by grants from the Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA), together with investments by local residents, it said Tuesday. The Vermont Public Service Department is building open-access fiber cable trunks designed by the VTA through parts of Randolph and other communities. ECFiber is a community network comprised of 24 towns in east-central Vermont that banded together to build a community-owned network.

NTIA plans a daylong regional broadband workshop in California to help communities expand their broadband capacity and utilization, it said in a notice in Wednesday's Federal Register. The workshop will be Nov. 17 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST in the Hahn Auditorium at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, NTIA said.

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed AB-856 Tuesday. The bill, which closes a loophole in existing law by clarifying paparazzi are trespassing when flying a drone over private property, was authored by Democratic Assembly member Ian Calderon. “Paparazzi have used drones for years to invade the privacy and capture pictures of public persons in their most private of activities -- despite existing law,” Calderon said in a news release Tuesday. AB-856 prohibits drones from being used to fly over fences, bypass gates and travel into private sanctuaries to peer into windows, capture goings on and otherwise spy on the private lives of public persons, Calderon said.

State commissions should require incumbent carriers to file their VoIP interconnection agreements for review, make them public and make them available for opt-in by competitors, said a white paper released by Gillan Associates and written by economist Joseph Gillan. The paper cites several instances where Verizon failed to disclose VoIP interconnection agreements with state commissions as required under Section 252 of the Telecom Act. Verizon in California revealed it has at least 11 unfiled IP agreements for the exchange of voice traffic with other competitors and wireless carriers, the paper said. The paper raises no new arguments and gets the law wrong, said a Verizon spokesman. The FCC ordered earlier this year that interconnection obligations for VoIP providers are unsettled and the commission has declined to mandate IP VoIP interconnection arrangements, the spokesman said. Gillan said the paper is a synthesis of his work from a variety of state proceedings for his clients.

The Broadband Tech Summit will be Oct. 14 at the Utah Valley Convention Center in Provo, said the event website. The Utah Broadband Outreach Center is hosting the event to outline changes in the telecom industry, it said. Among the speakers will be state Rep. Stephen Handy (R); John Windhausen, Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition-executive director; Brian Gibbons, NTIA-senior communications policy specialist; and Andy Spurgeon, Broadband USA-director of operations.

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission is doing a triennial review of the state's USF, an order said. A prehearing and technical conference is scheduled for Oct. 21 to make sure the USF meets requirements, see that the service is affordable and review operation of the fund, the commission said in the order dated Sept. 30.

NENA plans a "Critical Issues Forum" Wednesday and Thursday in Austin to tackle location accuracy problems that 911 can face in the public safety community and with the public, a news release from NENA said. David Simpson, chief of the FCC Public Safety Bureau, will speak on developments in location accuracy during the conference, it said.