The number of information technology job postings by Illinois employers jumped nearly 90 percent in Q2 over the year-ago period, said a news release Wednesday from CompTIA. Illinois employers posted 53,388 IT job openings, vs. 28,312 in Q2 2014, said the group. The large majority of jobs posted were in the Chicago metropolitan area, it said. Illinois ranks eighth among states in overall tech employment; fourth in the number of tech establishments; and fourth in the number of Q2 IT job postings, CompTIA said.

Adtran has enabled Gigabit broadband services to more than 200 communities as part of its Enabling Communities, Connecting Lives program, it said in a Tuesday news release. Adtran said it is helping service providers, cable operators, municipalities and rural carriers deploy broadband service that can be a game-changer for community revitalization.

Verizon Wireless signed on to participate in phases 4 and 5 of the build-out of the Transit Wireless network that will provide cellular and Wi-Fi service to the subway in New York City, said a Tuesday news release from Transit Wireless. All four major wireless carriers have been working with Transit Wireless on the project that will cover 279 underground stations with 6 million riders per day across the boroughs of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens, the release said. Verizon service is in 63 stations and it will connect the remaining stations in phase 3 by the end of the summer, Transit said. Phase 4 of the network buildout, which began construction in March, is connecting 37 Manhattan and Bronx stations, the release said. Phase 5, which is scheduled to start construction late this year, will comprise 37 Manhattan stations, it said.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati consolidated the municipal broadband cases of Tennessee v. FCC and North Carolina v. FCC in case No. 15-3291/15-3555 (see 1508030050).

Pennsylvania Working Families began a campaign to bring Verizon FiOS to underserved areas, a news release from the organization said. The campaign's main target area is the Lehigh Valley, where the organization, along with the Communications Workers of America, held a town hall meeting Tuesday afternoon. The groups also released a radio ad and launched a website on Monday urging Verizon to bring FiOS to those underserved areas in and around the Lehigh Valley, the group said. Pennsylvania Working Families, CWA, local elected officials and citizens from the Lehigh Valley are calling on the Public Utility Commission to investigate the safety, adequacy and reliability of Verizon service in the state, the release said. The groups also held a door-to-door canvass over the weekend in Bethlehem to talk to citizens about the FiOS campaign, it said. Pennsylvania Working Families is tied closely with the CWA, which, along with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, has seen contracts expire in recent weeks (see 1508030061). A Verizon spokesman called the campaign nothing more than an attempt by union leaders to "distract attention from the real issues that need to be resolved at the bargaining table, namely healthcare costs, pensions and workplace flexibility."

Verizon customers in East Texas experienced a service disruption after an "equipment issue" occurred Monday afternoon, a Verizon spokeswoman said. A damaged or cut fiber optic cable caused the outage, she said, and Verizon is still investigating how that damage occurred. The telco restored service to all affected customers just after 8 p.m. Monday, she said. The company did not provide numbers on how many subscribers were affected.

The Public Service Commission of West Virginia and Verizon used Tuesday's 8/11 date to remind people to call 811 before they start any project that requires digging. Whether installing a mailbox, building a deck, planting a tree or laying a patio, residents need to call West Virginia 811 before they begin, said a news release from the PSC. By calling the free nationwide number -- 811 -- anyone who is planning on digging can help prevent the unintentional strike of underground utility lines, Verizon said in its news release. The depth of utility lines varies and lines can move when the ground freezes and thaws or an area receives a large amount of rain, the PSC release said. The risk of hitting an underground utility exists, even when digging only a few inches. Striking a pipeline, wire or cable can cause personal injury or death and may result in costly repairs, fines or inconvenient outages, it said.

The right training for dealing with disasters helps individuals, communities, economies and others better absorb the shock of an emergency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a Monday post on FirstNet's blog. That kind of preparedness translates to shorter recovery times and increased resilience, which applies to everything from human health to international emergency response to coastal disasters, NOAA said. Its Office of Response and Restoration recognizes the importance of training and education for preparing local responders to respond effectively to coastal disasters, the agency said.

Alaska Communications is partnering with Akeela to improve access to healthcare connectivity and the Internet, said a news release from Alaska Communications. Akeela is a behavioral healthcare provider in Anchorage and other communities throughout Alaska. Akeela will now be able to provide care remotely to patients thousands of miles away using its private, secure network to connect clinicians with patients via video conferencing and other telehealth tools, the release said. Akeela’s rural programs, which provide the opportunity for access to behavioral health practitioners through telemedicine, will benefit in particular, it said. Residents can receive care without leaving town, which is critical in emergency situations, the release said.

The Communications Workers of America said AT&T Southeast should get serious about bargaining a fair contract before the current one was to have expired Saturday night, said a CWA news release Friday. CWA represents 28,000 workers at AT&T Southeast in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Last week, CWA members at AT&T Southeast authorized union leaders to call a strike if a contract couldn't be agreed, the release said. The CWA bargaining team said AT&T Southeast management continued to demand concessions in job security, healthcare, and working conditions, including a demand for excessive forced overtime, the union said. The telco didn't comment Friday. A separate contract covering workers at YP Holdings also was to have expired Saturday evening. Verizon separately passed a contract deadline with the CWA, which also is criticizing that company (see 1508070029).