Phone systems are back up in Summit Health facilities in Pennsylvania after an outage that began on Thursday, said a news release from the health system Friday. Waynesboro Hospital and 15 other Summit Health buildings were affected by the outage, it said. No cause has been identified, the health system said.

Every city needs its own broadband plan, said Blair Levin, of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, during the NATOA conference in San Diego Friday. He said the debate between private interests over how unlicensed bands should be regulated is “way too important” not to involve cities. While some see the country’s communications system as a triumph of free-market forces, the telco, cable and wireless networks all required government actions to make the economics viable, providing access to rights of ways and poles, access to the programming created by others, construction permitting, access to spectrum, and much more, he said. Levin also said the most important “new commons” to develop in this era is broadband, with its networks, devices and applications. Making a broadband plan for each city should start from an analysis of where market forces are heading, he said. And in those plans, the communities must assess where they fit in the current market, Levin said. He said every plan he has seen is different but the vision remains the same: “Ubiquitous, affordable, abundant bandwidth, with everyone on and using the platform to improve public services.” To achieve that vision, the cities must drive fiber deeper, use spectrum more efficiently, get everyone on, and create applications and re-imagine government processes to use the platform to improve the delivery of public goods and services, he said. That same vision and those four strategies apply to cities, but the tactics for achieving that vision are diverse, he said. Levin also addressed the digital divide but mentioned one that “no one has noticed,” the digital divide between Starkville, Mississippi, and such cities as New York, Boston, Chicago and Washington, and well-off suburbs like Beverly Hills, California, Scarsdale, New York, and Bethesda, Maryland. Starkville residents have not one but two options to purchase an affordable gigabit, which is two more options than the residents have in those large cities and wealthy suburbs, he said.

The broadband landscape is changing for local governments, said Gigi Sohn, counselor to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, during the NATOA conference in San Diego Wednesday. The FCC is making its own changes to reflect changing conditions, she said, according to prepared remarks. Sohn cited pre-emption of restrictions on municipal broadband in Tennessee and North Carolina, the Connect America Fund Phase II commitment to pay $1.5 billion annually over the next six years, and the modernization of the Lifeline program as ways the FCC is making changes to keep up. During this change, the FCC wants to work with NATOA to remove barriers to broadband deployment, spur competition and ensure access for all, Sohn said. She said the future isn't in cable, but rather in broadband, which is good for citizens because it facilitates education, healthcare, economic empowerment, good government and civic participation. Rather than wait for incumbent ISPs to build the network cities want and need, Sohn said NATOA members can take control of their own broadband futures. This new model for local governments looks to benefit their citizens through externalities, not direct revenue, she said.

Honolulu Police Department officials will implement Smart911, a free national public safety service that allows residents to provide the information dispatchers need, before an emergency happens, said a news release from Smart911. Honolulu is the first city in the state to use the system, the release said. Smart911 enables citizens to create a free safety profile online that can include any information about their households that they want 911 to have in an emergency, the release said. When a resident makes an emergency call, that person's safety profile is automatically displayed to the 911 call taker, "allowing them to send the right response teams to the right location with the right information," it said. Smart911 is available in 40 states and more than 1,500 municipalities, the release said. Smart911 data is private and secure, and is used only for emergency responses and available in the event of an emergency call, the release said.

The California Broadband Council will discuss the state's first responder network, telehealth network and library system, and will get a tribal update at a meeting Tuesday, said the agenda. The council is made up of nine people and chaired by state Chief Information Officer Carlos Ramos. It was formed in 2010 to expand broadband deployment and eliminate the digital divide. The 9:30 a.m. meeting is at UC Riverside, 900 University Ave., Room 1113 INTS Building, Riverside, California.

Tests of the New York City subway's Transit Wireless network show riders of the Q line receive the best overall service on mobile phones, said Rhode & Schwarz in a Wednesday news release. Global Wireless Solutions tested 67 subway stations in the city from June to July, using Rhode & Schwarz test equipment, to analyze the program, the release said. The test found that the 4 line was by far the worst performing line for Wi-Fi connections, with just two out of 22 stations on the line (9 percent) having Wi-Fi available. Testing found that six of the sites had no detectable Wi-Fi signal, it said. New York City and Transit Wireless anticipate a complete rollout of Wi-Fi services to all 279 stations making up the city's subway system by 2017, it said.

PocketiNet Communications selected Huawei for rolling out its fiber-to-the-home initiative to bring ultra-fast gigabit Internet -- the first gigabit rural network in the state -- to Walla Walla, Washington, Huawei said in a news release. PocketiNet is a locally owned and operated ISP that serves 17 markets in the Columbia Basin region in Washington. The gigabit initiative is being launched in the U.S. without state or federal funding, the release said. The network will bring Internet to more than 15,000 homes and businesses in the Walla Walla area in a multiyear build-out, it said. PocketiNet expects to complete initial deployments of the network in 12-15 months, with a combination of underground and overhead fiber, it said.

Hundreds of Verizon wireline and wireless workers and elected officials -- including New York state Assemblymen Peter Abbate (D) and William Colton (D) and New York City Councilmen Daneek Miller (D) and Mark Treyger (D) -- are expected to rally outside a Verizon Wireless store in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, Thursday, said a news release from Communications Workers of America. Participants are asking the company to bring back Bianca Cunningham, a CWA union leader they said was being fired for "standing up for her rights, and [trying to] negotiate a fair contract," the union said. Verizon Wireless told Cunningham she will be terminated, and the company is targeting other union activists, CWA said. The union filed suit in a federal court against Verizon for unfairly firing Cunningham and expects to prevail, it said. A Verizon spokesman said the company doesn't comment on personnel matters. Contract negotiations between the company and CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers are ongoing, he said. "Rather than stage meaningless protests and rallies, we believe the unions would be far better off focusing on the issues that still need to be resolved."

The National Association of State 911 Administrators released a white paper on four possible approaches states could take to ensure sustainable funding for next-generation 911. The white paper addresses the problem of declining revenue and suggests using either the current funding model with moderate changes, sales tax, insurance or the state USF as a means to fix that. A companion white paper will be released in early 2016, it said.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission will open an investigation into last week's outage of CenturyLink's toll-free services in the state (see 1509040044), said a UTC news release. The outage reportedly affected services nationwide. Toll-free services, which include 800, 866, 877 and 888 numbers, failed in Washington around 2:30 p.m. Thursday, it said. The UTC said it will investigate the cause of the outage, the company's preparedness and response, restoration efforts, and notification and communication with regulatory and emergency agencies.