Region 1 of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rejected the bad faith bargaining charges against FairPoint Communications, the company said in a news release Wednesday. The NLRB posted the dismissal letter and said the appeal is due by Jan. 12. FairPoint has been battling against the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. “As described in the NLRB ruling, FairPoint engaged in lawful bargaining designed to achieve our stated goals of cost savings and operational flexibility,” FairPoint CEO Paul Sunu said in a statement. “The ruling today ... confirms our position and honest belief that we have bargained in good faith. As the unions appeal to the General Counsel of the NLRB, my expectation is that our case will continue to receive the fair and objective treatment that it did at the Regional level.” Peter McLaughlin, who chaired the unions’ bargaining committee and is IBEW Local 2327’s business manager, called the decision disappointing but not surprising. “Unfortunately, US labor law favors corporations like FairPoint, not working people,” he said in a statement. “The NLRB is one tool in our toolbox -- the NLRB does not decide what’s best for our workers and our communities. We remain united and committed in our fight for fairness at FairPoint.” The unions will appeal, they confirmed.

The New Hampshire Executive Council delayed a vote Tuesday on a $13 million state contract with FairPoint Communications to provide phone and Internet service to the state government. Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern, a Democrat, asked for the contract to be withdrawn from the council’s agenda over what he said were concerns about FairPoint’s current service quality. FairPoint would provide services to the state through 2020 under the contract. A FairPoint spokeswoman said the telco is working with New Hampshire officials to address concerns. The contract delay is occurring amid a protracted strike involving more than 1,700 FairPoint workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont that has drawn criticism from members of all three states’ congressional delegations. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rep. Ann Kuster, D-N.H., sent a joint letter Monday to FairPoint CEO Paul Sunu urging the company to negotiate with the striking workers. Kuster and Shaheen said the New Hampshire Public Utility Commission has received almost 500 complaints about poor service quality and outages since the strike began Oct. 17. Sunu responded Tuesday, telling Kuster and Shaheen that FairPoint has been negotiating in good faith and that issues with service quality are primarily due to a recent series of storms in the state. The elected five-member council is part of the executive branch of the state's government.

Forty-six Connecticut municipalities have signed on to an effort to facilitate development of gigabit networks in Connecticut, state Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz said Friday. New Haven, Stamford and West Hartford sought a joint Request for Qualifications in September to obtain information from interested broadband providers (see 1409160049), with the additional cities’ participation in the RFQ meaning more than 25 percent of the state’s municipalities are now involved. The localities that have since joined the RFQ include state capital Hartford. “The response from our state’s towns has been overwhelming,” Katz said in a news release. “Partnering with the private sector to examine the best way to build and finance these Gig networks is the first step in making them a reality in Connecticut.” Proposals from entities interested in partnering with the municipalities are due Jan. 13 to the New Haven city government’s purchasing department.

FairPoint Communications’ labor dispute with striking workers “involves FairPoint’s ability to be the 21st century telecommunications provider Vermonters want and Vermont’s economy deserves,” the company wrote the state’s congressional delegation Thursday. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D) and Bernie Sanders (I) and Rep. Peter Welch (D) wrote the company Wednesday urging FairPoint to negotiate an end to a strike in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont involving more than 1,700 of the telco’s workers (see 1412170059). In response, the company wrote the union’s demands “are not within the mainstream.” The company said the workers are seeking wage increases, maintaining accrual of defined pension benefits despite having a matching 401(k) plan and do not want to make “meaningful contributions" to their health plans. A spokesman for the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) locals representing the workers called FairPoint's letter "misleading."

If the FCC grants TracFone’s petition to allow text messages to be considered "supported" usage of Lifeline service, it should do so only for outgoing messages, the Public Utility Commission of Oregon said in a filing posted Wednesday. Outgoing text messages could mesh with the FCC’s current rule, which considers only active customer communications to be supported Lifeline services, the PUC said. Incoming text messages shouldn’t be defined as supported usage because, "like a voicemail message, which doesn’t qualify as usage under the current rule, the text could be left unopened indefinitely or for long periods of time,” the PUC said.

Vermont’s congressional delegation urged FairPoint Communications to negotiate an end to a strike in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont involving more than 1,700 of the telco’s workers. “We are extremely disappointed that FairPoint management has not come back to the bargaining table with any meaningful concessions to end this strike,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I, and Rep. Peter Welch, D, in a letter to FairPoint, posted Wednesday. “It is becoming increasingly clear to Vermonters that management is more concerned with the interests of corporate owners of FairPoint than negotiating a reasonable agreement that is fair to your workers and customers.” Vermont’s Department of Public Service has received an amplified number of customer complaints about FairPoint since the strike began in October, prompting the state Public Service Board to begin an investigation into the complaints (see 1412090063). FairPoint CEO Paul Sunu blamed local chapters of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Wednesday for the protracted length of the strike, saying in a letter to Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin that FairPoint “has always been willing to compromise with the unions.” FairPoint’s efforts to reach an agreement have been unsuccessful, he said. Shumlin had sent a letter to FairPoint last week also urging an end to the strike. A spokesman for the local CWA and IBEW chapters said FairPoint has rejected the unions’ proposals.

California PUC staff discussed the Local Number Portability Administration (LNPA) selection during a conference call with FCC Wireline Bureau staffers Thursday, the CPUC said in an ex parte filing Monday. Neustar and Telcordia have been battling for LNPA selection (see 1412030046). The call focused on LNPA services the CPUC “considers critical to 911 operations, and might impact 911 and public safety,” the CPUC said. The call also focused on whether the shortened LNPA transition “poses any special challenges” for the selected vendor, the CPUC said.

The California Public Utilities Commission confirmed Monday that it won’t hold hearings Wednesday and Thursday as part of CPUC's review of Comcast's proposed buy of Time Warner Cable. The CPUC had budgeted time Wednesday and Thursday for evidentiary hearings on the deal as part of its revised review timeline, but canceled them after the commission’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates filed a motion declining to request hearings. CPUC Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer subsequently denied a hearing request from the National Asian American Coalition. The CPUC holds hearings on a proceeding only in response to a stakeholder request. ORA said in its filing, posted Friday, that it didn’t believe it and other stakeholders would have adequate time under the revised timeline to adequately prepare for a hearing. Comcast and other companies involved in Comcast/TWC and related deals filed their opening briefs on the deal Dec. 1, while other stakeholders had until Wednesday to file reply comments. Media Alliance Executive Director Tracy Rosenberg told us she believes the CPUC can still do a thorough review of Comcast/TWC without the hearings because of the material included in other parties’ reply comments, which generally opposed the deal. Hearings would have been preferable because they would have allowed the public an additional opportunity to comment on the deal, Rosenberg said.

The Iowa Chamber Alliance (ICA), a coalition of 16 of the state’s chambers of commerce, said its members support “aggressively” pursuing broadband investment as part of Iowa’s 2015 legislative agenda. The group said it supports “competitive tax treatment” for broadband providers and deployment incentives, which alliance Executive Director John Stineman told us align with the “Connect Every Acre” plan that Republican Gov. Terry Branstad proposed during his successful re-election campaign. Branstad’s plan appears likely to influence Iowa legislators in 2015 as they reconsider a bill to expand broadband access in the state. State legislators failed to pass similar legislation in 2014 (see 1410310059). ICA also backs legislation that would bar the Iowa Utilities Board from regulating broadband, Stineman said.

FairPoint Communications filed a motion for reconsideration with the Maine Public Utilities Commission Thursday over a Nov. 21 PUC ruling that the telco hadn’t adequately demonstrated its need for its requested $62.8 million subsidy from the state USF for supporting provider of last resort (POLR) service for 29,000 customers in the state. The PUC raised the POLR rate in May to $16.69 per month for residential users and $34.28 for businesses. FairPoint’s requested subsidy is estimated to require an additional $5 rate hike per cellphone bill. FairPoint said Thursday that it “has an unconditional obligation to provide service, but the Order refuses to fund the service because the Commission's preferred forward looking cost and embedded cost analyses failed to produce a result that was acceptable to the Commission.” Without the additional subsidy, the telco said it "is faced with at least another year sustaining tens of millions of dollars of losses to provide the service while the Commission and the Legislature toss this POLR funding ‘hot potato’ back and forth.”