It's surprising that Minnesota has never been challenged over its public utilities commission's authority over interconnected VoIP services before the Charter Communications case (see 1508210040), said PUC Commissioner John Tuma at an FCBA lunch Friday. The state Department of Commerce could have brought the issue up previously, but it chose to do so because, among other reasons, it wasn't collecting as much in fees, which made the department stand up and take notice, Tuma said. The commission could have turned the issue into a rulemaking opportunity, but Tuma said it believes the law is clear and there wasn't a need for more rulemaking. The issue is ongoing, but the PUC believes that "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, has a dial tone like a duck, it's a duck," he said. The commission didn't necessarily push in the direction that the Minnesota Department of Commerce would have liked, Tuma said, but it focused "very carefully" on the preemption issue, he said. He anticipates the decision will be appealed by Charter. The major issues the commission had with Charter's transfer of services to this interconnected VoIP service is that it transferred customers to an entity that doesn't have the certificate to run a phone service in the state with no notice and that the company is no longer paying Telecommunications Access Minnesota (TAM) and Telephone Assistance Program (TAP) fees, the commissioner said. Charter did continue to provide 911 services, he said. There has been no talk of a fine being imposed on Charter, mainly because to do that in Minnesota requires the attorney general to get involved and take it to court, Tuma said. So the commission basically wants to know how Charter planned to pay the state's TAM and TAP fees for the new service, Tuma said.

IRis Networks and NGN established a fiber ethernet interconnection to strengthen broadband availability between Nashville, Knoxville and Cleveland, Tennessee, and Atlanta and north Georgia, said a news release from NGN. The interconnection of networks will give the region's business community access to broadband connectivity services from 1 Mbps to 100 Gbps, it said. The network will provide more opportunity for national providers, wireless and wireline, to use rural fiber networks to deliver services, it said Wednesday.

Alaska's General Communication launched the state's only 1 Gbps Internet service in Anchorage, called 1 GIG red, said a news release from the company. GCI is also upgrading all other red Internet markets in Alaska to speeds up to 500 Mbps, from the current red speeds of up to 250 Mbps, previously the fastest Internet service available in Alaska, it said. GCI plans to expand the network in the coming year, said the cable ISP Wednesday.

AT&T committed to extend broadband to more than 81,000 rural homes and businesses in Tennessee as a part of the FCC Connect America Fund (CAF) over the next six years, a company news release said. The deployment will deliver broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps/1 Mbps. AT&T Tennessee said it will receive more than $26 million annually over the next six years to help meet its commitment in the state. Other carriers in Tennessee also have committed to expand rural broadband through the CAF program, for a combined total of more than $29 million annually for each of the next six years, it said.

AT&T repaired fiber that was vandalized in the Livermore, California, area Monday, and caused some customers to have trouble with their wireline and wireless services, a spokesman said. Crews completed the repairs Tuesday, he said. This incident is one of many recent vandalism attacks in Northern California (see 1509040044). AT&T is offering a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for fiber vandalism in Alameda County, California, the spokesman said.

CenturyLink is increasing its fiber footprint by expanding its gigabit network to residential and small business customers in parts of six more states -- Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina and South Dakota -- the telco said in a news release. CenturyLink now offers gigabit Internet service to residential and small business customers in parts of 17 states and, by the end of 2015, should have more than 700,000 households enabled with fiber-to-the-home technology capable of uploading and downloading information at speeds up to 1 Gbps, it said.

Garrett County, Maryland, and Declaration Networks Group (DNG) signed a long-term agreement establishing funding for deployment of a broadband network infrastructure to deliver high-speed Internet services to more than 3,000 unserved or underserved homes and businesses, a DNG news release said. The initiative was jointly developed by Garrett County and the Appalachian Regional Commission, which both committed grant funding to the project, the release said. DNG was selected as the private industry partner by the county through a competitive bid process, it said. DNG will begin its network deployment later this year, the release said.

US Ignite received a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to build "living lab" test beds in 15 communities throughout the country, it said in a news release Monday. The grant is a part of the Obama administration's initiative unveiled earlier that day to research and develop smart cities (see 1509140054), which includes a total anticipated investment of $160 million. The end result of US Ignite's grant "will be a growing number of communities nationwide participating in a 'smart city app store' for interoperable and interconnected smart gigabit community applications," it said. The group said its new project will span three years and include participation from cities including Cleveland; Kansas City, Missouri; and Madison, Wisconsin. The White House announcement also marked the beginning of the Smart Cities Council's Smart Cities Week Conference and Exhibition in D.C.

If granted priority access to the nationwide public safety broadband network, utilities could bring resources and funding to the initial construction of the network, said a FirstNet blog post about the Ohio Initial Consultation meeting. Utility providers serve a critical public safety function and would make excellent partners and users on the NPSBN, it said. Another case that officials discussed at the meeting was the Ebola incident in Ohio in 2014. To manage the incident, public safety personnel relied heavily on phone calls, text messaging, emails, reverse 911 alerts and activation of the emergency operations center, it said. The chief information officer for Akron envisions leveraging FirstNet to improve response capabilities in similar situations, FirstNet said. He highlighted three potential capabilities: provisioning devices based on geo-fencing and credentialing; a FirstNet file-sharing app with only the most up-to-date and correct information and documents; and a virtual emergency operations center with videoconferencing, conference calling and screen sharing, it said.

Signing AB-57 will help alleviate delay in approving applications to site new wireless facilities and renew permits for existing facilities, PCIA said in a letter to California Gov. Jerry Brown (D). The bill says a collocation or siting application for a wireless telecom facility is deemed approved if the city or county fails to approve or disapprove the application within the reasonable time periods specified in applicable decisions of the FCC, all required public notices have been provided regarding the application, and the applicant provided a notice to the city or county that the reasonable time period has elapsed, the California State Legislature's website said. By speeding up the approval of the facilities, industry and government can ensure that Californians have access to robust mobile broadband, PCIA wrote Brown.