Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., urged the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) Monday to move forward with the state Department of Public Service’s (DPS) request for an investigation into FairPoint Communications’ service interruptions. Vermont DPS petitioned the PSB Monday to do an investigation in the wake of an outage Friday that resulted in 911 calls failing to reach public safety answering points (PSAPs) in Middlesex, Montpelier, St. Albans and Williston (see 1412010037). The Vermont E911 Board upped its estimate Tuesday of the number of 911 calls that failed to reach PSAPs to 97 from its original estimate of 45, after 911-infrastructure company Intrado provided additional numbers to the board Monday. Intrado operated the state’s E911 system until operations switched to FairPoint at the end of November, but Intrado is still transitioning out of its role. Vermont DPS said it has received about 388 complaints regarding FairPoint’s service since early September. FairPoint’s record of service complaints, along with last week’s 911 outage, “is simply unacceptable,” Sanders said in a news release. “FairPoint’s history of bankruptcy and poor service should be cause for real concern in terms of the company’s ability to deliver the emergency services Vermonters need, deserve and are paying for.” Sanders also faulted FairPoint for its ongoing dispute with workers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, where more than 1,700 have been on strike since late October (see 1410170025). “FairPoint is clearly putting the interests of the multi-billion-dollar hedge funds, which own the company, ahead of its workers and ahead of its Vermont customers,” Sanders said. A FairPoint spokeswoman said the telco is aware of the DPS petition and plans to cooperate if the PSB begins an investigation, but noted that FairPoint believes the 911 outage is unrelated to the ongoing strike.

Sprint wholesale partner nTelos Wireless said it will sell its 1900 MHz PCS spectrum licenses in eastern Virginia to T-Mobile for around $56 million. The deal, which includes licenses in the Hampton Roads/Norfolk and Richmond markets, is part of a “strategic” refocus on nTelos’ markets in western Virginia and West Virginia, the carrier said Tuesday. “We are right-sizing our business and redirecting our resources on our Western Markets, which provide us the greatest opportunity for sustained, profitable growth,” nTelos Chairman Michael Huber said in a news release. “At the same time, we are exiting markets that have become increasingly competitive and where we have been unable to achieve acceptable financial returns.” NTelos said it expects the sale to close by April following expected FCC and Virginia State Corporation Commission reviews of the deal. NTelos said it plans to transition its eastern Virginia subscribers to another carrier as it winds down operations in the region, though it initially will lease back a portion of the spectrum it’s selling to T-Mobile so it can continue operations in the region until Nov. 15, 2015.

The Vermont Department of Public Service (DPS) said Monday it petitioned the Public Service Board to investigate FairPoint Communications’ service in the state, with a central focus on determining causes of the telco's service interruptions and possible solutions. The DPS petition followed an almost six-hour FairPoint network outage late Friday that the Vermont E911 Board said resulted in at least 45 911 calls not reaching state public safety answering points. FairPoint attributed the outage to equipment failures and a fallen fiber line in neighboring New Hampshire. DPS said it had warned FairPoint twice in recent months that it would seek an investigation if the telco’s service quality didn’t improve by the end of November. Those service issues have increased “precipitously” in recent months, DPS said. FairPoint didn’t immediately comment.

Carolina West Wireless and CWW's Clear Stream Communications sought a waiver Wednesday of a rule in the FCC 2013 rural call completion order that requires a telco to count subscriber lines of affiliates toward the determination of whether a telco serves fewer than 100,000 subscriber lines. The order exempted long-distance service providers that make the initial long-distance call path choice for fewer than 100,000 subscriber lines. CWW said it doesn’t believe the subscriber lines of its affiliates “have any influence over CWW’s call routing decisions” and has unsuccessfully sought FCC reconsideration of the rule. The commission invited CWW and other carriers to file waiver requests, CWW said. If the agency grants CWW’s waiver request, the telco “would fall below the de minimis threshold, and would be exempt from the rural call completion data collection and reporting requirements,” CWW said.

NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay emphasized the group’s continued position on 911 oversight -- that 911 service “is unquestionably an intrastate” telecom service that states must play a role in managing. His comments came during a meeting Monday with Daniel Alvarez, aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. The FCC “lacks the staff and financial resources” to protect consumers from 911 outages alone and “there is no reason to undermine State authority in this area,” Ramsay said Tuesday in an ex parte filing. “If the FCC’s intent is to coordinate with State authorities and assure maximum pressure and oversight on carriers to provide working and reliable E9-1-1 and other services, one option is to make crystal clear (in the text of the order) to all carriers that if a State asserts jurisdiction over or imposes rules to ensure reliability/service quality of E9-1-1 and related services, the FCC will strongly support the State action.”

FirstNet confirmed Tuesday that the Department of Commerce Office of Inspector General launched a separate audit of FirstNet’s technical development of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN). The audit would “evaluate and assess FirstNet’s efforts and progress to develop the technical design aspects for the NPSBN against key technical requirements and standards, the requirements of [the 2012 Spectrum Act], stakeholder requirements, and established performance metrics and milestones,” Commerce OIG said in a letter. FirstNet “will fully comply with this audit and the IG office,” a spokesman said.

A Communications Workers of America (CWA) meeting in July with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio violated state education laws and city Department of Education (DOE) regulations, the city's Department of Investigation (DOI) and DOE Special Commissioner for Investigation Richard Condon said Tuesday in a report. The meeting, held at Public School 66 in Brooklyn while CWA Local 1182 was negotiating a new contract with Cablevision, was billed as a way for CWA workers to tell de Blasio about their dispute with the cable company. De Blasio, a Democrat, said in prepared remarks for the meeting that he was with CWA workers “every step of the way.” CWA barred media and the public from the meeting, which violates state laws regarding access to public school property, New York City DOE and DOI said in the report. The meeting also may have violated New York City Charter rules on conflicts of interest, the state DOI said. A de Blasio spokesman said the mistake was “inadvertent” and that de Blasio’s office will work to ensure it’s not repeated. CWA apologized for violating New York City DOE rules on open meetings and “will be sure to comply with such rules in the future,” Bob Master, CWA political director-District One, said in a statement. “We hope that likewise, Cablevision will move expeditiously to comply with federal labor law, which it has repeatedly and flagrantly violated for the last three years.” Cablevision criticized de Blasio and CWA in a statement, saying they had “cooked up this secret political meeting on behalf of the CWA in a New York public school.” Cablevision employees in Brooklyn have twice sought and failed to receive National Labor Relations Board approval of a vote to decertify from CWA, the company said.

Google Fiber filed for a Tennessee franchise license Friday, telling the state's Regulatory Authority it intends to begin offering broadband service in Nashville and surrounding Davidson County within 24 months after the TRA issues a license. Google has identified Nashville as a potential expansion city for its Google Fiber service. A Google Fiber spokeswoman said there’s “still a lot of work to do” before the company decides whether to expand to Nashville. Google hopes to provide an update on its decisionmaking regarding Nashville by year's end, the spokeswoman said.

Thirty-eight state and territorial attorneys general urged the FTC Monday to prohibit the use of pre-acquired account information in its planned update of its telemarketing sales rule (TSR). The FTC sought comment in August on an update of the TSR and sought comment on whether to revise the TSR’s pre-acquired account information provision to reflect the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act (see 1410080043). Prohibiting the use of pre-acquired information will ensure a consumer has consented to a transaction, the AGs said in a joint filing via the National Association of Attorneys General. They urged the FTC to better address negative option telemarketing because that type of telemarketing often leads to “outright deception” and confusion. The FTC should also require telemarketers to create and maintain records and ban the use of money transfers and certain other payment methods, the AGs said.

A group of officials from Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco urged FCC officials last week to raise the E-rate funding cap and consider increasing E-rate’s internal connection budget for urban libraries, along with allowing flexibility for capital improvements and supporting schools and libraries in operating their own networks. The cities’ representatives also urged the FCC to adopt “the strongest possible net neutrality protections,” during their meeting with Special Counsel for External Affairs Gigi Sohn and aides to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, the cities said in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday.