Washington, D.C.’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency (HSEMA) denied claims that encryption of the city’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services department radios was responsible for radio communications failures that occurred during a fatal Jan. 12 incident in a downtown subway tunnel. The denial came in a report Friday. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) interim General Manager Jack Requa had said the agency wasn’t aware that FEMS had switched from analog radios to encrypted Motorola Project 25 (P25) standard digital radios until after the Jan. 12 incident at WMATA’s L’Enfant Plaza Metrorail station, when problems with radio connectivity were seen as possibly hampering the rescue (see 1501220067) of passengers trapped in a smoke-filled train. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., urged WMATA and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments to improve communications about interoperability of emergency radios between area agencies (see 1501230066). Available information indicates FEMS radio encryption “does not appear to have played a role in the communications difficulties” that public safety personnel encountered during the rescue, HSEMA said in its report. HSEMA also said it found the D.C. government’s Office of Unified Communications (OUC) had coordinated with WMATA throughout the two years before it transitioned FEMS to the P25 radios and did 600 tests of the radios in every D.C. Metrorail station. OUC has fixed the radio connectivity issues in the L’Enfant Plaza station and is expediting a systemwide test of the radios, HSEMA said. A WMATA spokesman declined comment but noted the agency is waiting for the findings of the National Transportation and Safety Board, which he called the “only impartial agency conducting a fact-based investigation into this matter.”

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) said its top federal advocacy priority for 2015 is improving cybersecurity. “Our nation must do more to combat the asymmetrical, sophisticated threats our government networks face on a daily basis,” said NASCIO President Stuart Davis in a Thursday news release. NASCIO will seek more federal resources for state-level cybersecurity programs and better access to cybersecurity professionals, the group said. The group’s other top priorities include reducing regulatory hurdles to state-level information technology, FirstNet planning and collaborating with the federal government on improving broadband connections to schools and libraries.

Motorola Solutions said it invested in public safety software developer SceneDoc. Motorola didn’t disclose the terms of the investment, but said Thursday it’s part of the company’s “strategy to advance mission-critical communications by connecting public safety and commercial customers with real-time data and intelligence like never before.” Law enforcement and public safety personnel use SceneDoc’s software as a “trusted digital notebook” to provide communication among officers in the field, dispatchers, command centers and agencies, Motorola said.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority was unaware until after a Jan. 12 rescue outside its L’Enfant Plaza Metrorail station that the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) department’s radios were encrypted, said WMATA interim General Manager Jack Requa Thursday during a WMATA board meeting. WMATA has faced scrutiny since the Jan. 12 incident because firefighters found their radios didn’t work at the L’Enfant Plaza station or in adjacent tunnels, potentially hampering efforts to rescue passengers stuck on a train filled with smoke (see 1501200067). WMATA and FEMS determined Jan. 14 that the FEMS encryption codes blocked communication in the station, because WMATA hadn’t calibrated its equipment with the same codes, Requa said. The two agencies have now calibrated those codes, he said. FEMS has been very open about its move to encrypt its radios, a FEMS spokesman said. The National Transportation Safety Board said it’s examining the radio connectivity issue as part of its overall investigation of the Jan. 12 incident, which left one passenger dead.

Windstream said it received all necessary approvals from state utility regulators for its planned spinoff of a real estate investment trust (REIT) with its fiber and copper assets, to be called Communications Sales & Leasing (CS&L). The IRS also has sent a “favorable letter ruling” on the REIT, Windstream said Wednesday. The REIT spinoff is still set to close during the first half of this year, with Windstream saying it’s now focusing on the plan’s final steps. Windstream Director Francis Frantz will be CS&L’s chairman and will lead the search for the REIT’s president and CEO, Windstream said. The telco announced its plans for the REIT spinoff in July (see 1408070047).

The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) is again delaying consideration of Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable. Comcast and TWC agreed Tuesday to a PSC request to extend the deadline for a PSC vote on the deal until Feb. 26, more than a month past the previous deadline, which had been Thursday. The PSC must now issue a final order on Comcast/TWC by March 3.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) urged the state’s legislature Tuesday to cut $470 million in state telecom and TV taxes, the first in a series of $1 billion in cuts over the next two years. This year’s portion of the tax cut would save every Florida family “around $40 a year for spending as little as $100 a month between cell phone, cable and satellite bills,” Scott said in a news release. Florida levies a 9.17 percent tax on nonresidential landlines, wireless and cable services, and a 13.17 percent tax on satellite services.

Sprint wholesale partner nTelos Wireless said it plans to sell 103 of its remaining wireless towers to a Grain Management affiliate for $41 million. NTelos said it will sign a long-term lease agreement on the towers, which are all in western U.S. markets. NTelos said it will continue to focus on its business in western Virginia and West Virginia. The announcement occurred less than two months after nTelos said it was selling its 1900 MHz PCS spectrum licenses in eastern Virginia to T-Mobile (see 1412020025).

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) said it plans to amend its rule requiring mandatory distribution of white pages directories to allow telcos to determine whether they will satisfy the rule through an electronic directory. Telcos must still provide a print version of the white pages directory to individual customers upon request, the PUC said Friday. The proposed rules are to be in Tuesday’s State Register. Comments on the proposed rules are due by 4:30 p.m. Feb. 19, the PUC said. If the commission receives more than 25 comments on the proposed rules, it will have a March 2 hearing.

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) asked the state’s legislature to provide $8.9 million in funding for the Idaho Education Network (IEN) broadband network for the upcoming fiscal year, saying during a Monday news conference that he wants to rebid the contract for the network. IEN is in limbo after a state district court judge ruled in November that the contract that established the network in 2009 was illegal because the state later stripped original contractor Syringa Networks of its role in the network and gave it to what was then Qwest, now known as CenturyLink. “We still have to review with the judge, we still have to review with the participants, a path forward,” Otter said. The state legislature appropriated $11.4 million last year to keep IEN running, replacing funding provided by the federal government until 2013. The FCC had been paying 70 percent of the IEN’s costs via the E-rate program, but stopped funding the project amid Syringa’s lawsuit. Idaho’s education and administration departments cautioned the state’s school districts last week to find backup broadband services for the coming fiscal year in the event the state is forced to discontinue IEN. “We want to be proactive about ensuring that Idaho school districts are held harmless no matter the outcome of legal or legislative action,” state officials said in a letter to the school districts.