Sprint lost a bid in the New York Court of Appeals to get a case dismissed that charges the company with failing to collect more than $100 million in taxes from customers in New York, said the court's decision in New York v. Sprint Nextel Corp., New York State Court of Appeals case No. 127. The New York Attorney General originally denied Sprint's attempt to get the case dismissed. The case seeks to recoup three times the $100 million in taxes that Sprint owes New York state and local governments since 2005, plus penalties, the AG's office said in its release in 2013. Tuesday's decision leaves Sprint open to a lawsuit from the state. Sprint "unbundled a part of the fixed monthly charge that it attributed to intrastate mobile voice services and did not collect taxes on the portion that it attributed to interstate and international calls," the decision said. Sprint is disappointed in the court's decision and is "reviewing the opinion and considering our legal options," a spokesman said.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed a lawsuit in federal court against Charter Communications for violating federal and state telemarketing and no-call laws, Koster's office said in a news release Monday. The AG’s office has received 350 complaints about Charter’s telemarketers, with some consumers receiving daily calls from the company, and some getting up to three calls a day, it said. A Charter spokesman said it's not the company's policy to make marketing calls to people on the Do Not Call list and if calls were made, "it was an error and will be fixed."

The FCC should add broadband to its Lifeline program to augment the current program so low-income families can afford Internet services, said the California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) in comments Monday in docket 11-42. The program should require Internet providers have an affordable, unbundled option that costs about $10 per month, said CETF. The program shouldn't force people to choose between phone and Internet service, it said. There should also be a streamlined process for third-party verification of eligibility, said CETF. It asked the FCC to encourage states to have their own Lifeline program to supplement the national one.

St. Louis County Emergency Management deployed BlackBerry's AtHoc to provide its crisis communications network, a news release from the company said Monday. The system was deployed Aug. 1.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster (D) reached a $575,000 settlement in a lawsuit against Farmers Insurance Exchange for violating state telemarketing and no-call laws, said a release from Koster's office. The settlement requires Farmers to create policies that will prevent future no-call violations, including agent training and annual audits of a sample of the company’s agents, the release said. The settlement will be the largest paid by a telemarketer for Missouri no-call and telemarketing violations, and will be used to educate consumers about the laws and to pay for the cost of the lawsuit, the release said. A Farmers spokesman said the company didn't think it "infringed on" any state regulations, it thinks the settlement "enables us to move forward with an outcome that is the best course of action for everyone involved."

The California Public Utilities Commission's request for an FCC waiver to be able to use government-issued identifications other than the last four digits of Social Security numbers to verify eligibility for the Lifeline program was the subject of a recent lobbying meeting with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, NARUC said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 11-42. It said that California allows residents without a Social Security number to acquire driver's licenses, so some may have government-issued identification but not the required SSN.

As of March 31, 17 projects remained in active status and 263 had been completed since the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program's (BTOP) inception, program officials said in a quarterly status report, released Friday and dated "July 2015." The program's grant recipients exceeded FY 2015 subscriber and community anchor institute goals and were making progress toward the miles goal, the report said. BTOP grant recipients deployed or upgraded 673 network miles, connected 101 community anchor institutions, and generated 671,585 new subscribers, the report said. In March, NTIA added the last set of data collected from the State Broadband Initiative (SBI) and found that the country met the president's goal of making sure 98 percent of the U.S. has access to wireless. The data also showed that 85 percent of the country had access to wired broadband at the FCC new benchmark level of 25 Mbps/3 Mbps. As of March 31, five SBI grant recipients were still active, the report said. Data in the progress report is from January through March 2015.

Chattanooga's municipal utility company EPB Fiber Optics now offers 10 Gbps Internet service for every home in the 600-square-mile area, said a Thursday news release from EPB. Residential service costs $299 per month.

Pennsylvania officials want some control over the way FirstNet is deployed there, said Pennsylvania State Police Maj. Diane Stackhouse during a webinar this week sponsored by InfoVista. Officials want to create a quality assurance program to maintain a system that stays within public safety agency budgets, she said. Pennsylvania has done outreach and collected data showing that there will be challenges associated with providing wireless coverage in wooded areas that can be found in parts of the state, Stackhouse said.

Pennsylvania Rep. Kevin Schreiber (D) recently introduced HB-1108, which would exempt domestic violence victims from early termination fees when they remove themselves from an abuser’s cellphone contract, said a news release from the lawmaker. The bill also would require cellphone companies to provide new phone numbers to domestic violence victims, as long as they provide documentation of the abuse, such as a police report. He said Tuesday that, because of technological advances, it has become harder for a victim to hide from an abuser, in particular when they share the same phone plan.