Fierce

CenturyLink and Education Networks of America are suing the state of Idaho for $37 million over claims that it broke the terms of their broadband agreement, one that includes expanding their fiber network to support a state broadband project for local schools. This suit follows a decision made by Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden demanding the two companies repay the millions of dollars that the state had paid them for services.

CenturyLink and Education Networks of America said in a Salt Lake Tribune article that the contract was void due to missteps taken by the state. The pair said they want to be paid for the work they did. Additionally, the two companies said they want to be compensated for the investment they made to meet the future terms of the contract, including the extension of fiber facilities to hard to reach rural areas. In its lawsuit, CenturyLink officials said that state officials -- including Gov CL "Butch" Otter (R-ID) and other legislative leaders -- told them that Idaho should pay for the network services the telecommunication company provided to them. Although state lawmakers proposed an $8 million settlement, Idaho will have to pay out a larger amount of money for the troubled state broadband plan. The project, which was launched in 2008, aimed to provide one broadband network for all schools across the state. To date, Idaho taxpayers have paid over $29 million for the project.

Verizon's landline and wireless voice customers in New York’s Madison County are back on line after the telecommunication company repaired a severed fiber line that provided service to about 1,500 of its own customers as well as Frontier and Windstream customers. The state's Public Service Commission is taking a look at the incident.

AT&T claims that Google Fiber’s call for a one-touch-make-ready ordinance to streamline the process of stringing fiber on poles in Nashville (TN) could compromise the telecommunication company's own facilities because Google often provides incorrect information about where it is looking to attach its facilities. A proposed ordinance would allow Google Fiber to move existing Comcast and AT&T cables itself on utility poles owned by Nashville Electric Services (NES). This would circumvent the old make-ready rules that require Google Fiber to notify NES of the need to make space for its cables, only to have NES contact AT&T and Comcast to execute the actual work. Instead of waiting to see when AT&T’s union workforce is available, Google Fiber would be able to choose its own contractors.

Google Fiber has established a nationwide contract with AT&T to attach its facilities to the poles the telco owns. However, AT&T looks at each attachment process city by city. Joelle Phillips, president of AT&T Tennessee, said that while it is not concerned about Google Fiber’s ability to find experienced contractors to conduct the make ready work, the relatively new service provider continues to submit incorrect information about the poles. “Let’s assume they hire the very best contractors, if they give those engineering plans that we get in our application to that contractor I know that’s work that’s going to be done all over again,” Phillips said. “I am seeing many of those that have errors in them that would be corrected so it’s really not so much that they would hire bad contractors but that they might give them bad instructions.” After filing an application, AT&T does a field survey to make sure the pole matches the engineering drawings they have done.

Google Fiber's move to delay certain fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) builds may have sparked concern from industry pundits that the service provider is turning its back on fiber, but these moves actually allow it to consider a new strategy: sharing dark fiber networks. Besides using millimeter wave wireless as a way to scale its network reach, leasing dark fiber from a host of other providers or even local municipalities that have laid fiber for their own internal use, is a palatable solution to scale its network.

“Given the large capital requirements and above outlined challenges of fiber network builds, we believe that companies are increasingly utilizing shared dark fiber as a way to achieve better economics on planned expansions,” said Barlays in a research report. Google Fiber indicated its desire to seek out alternatives after a recent report emerged that the service provider’s planned buildouts of 1 Gbps in San Jose (CA), Mountain View (CA), and Palo Alto (CA) are on hold. While leveraging millimeter wireless is a less expensive alternative to wireline internet service, the service provider can also tap into a bevy of dark fiber networks being built in a number of US cities. Google Fiber purchased Webpass, a competitive provider that provides Ethernet-based services to businesses using a mix of fiber and broadband wireless technologies to deliver broadband services to businesses and residential customers.

[SOURCE: Fierce, AUTHOR: Sean Buckley]
AT&T is going to start offering broadband internet services for $10 a month to eligible low-income families in Illinois through its "Access from AT&T" in areas where the telco offers wireline internet service. Eligible customers will also be able to get Wi-Fi services to support their laptop or smart phone inside the home. Additionally, participating customers will be able to get access to thousands of AT&T Wi-Fi hot spots outside of the home. The $10 offer, which will be available through April of 2020, is a condition of AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV in 2015. Participants won’t have to pay extra for service installation or activation.

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry has called on Comcast, AT&T and Google Fiber to meet and discuss a solution to their local pole-attachment issues. Just as it has in Louisville, Kentucky, Google Fiber is trying to circumvent cumbersome rules for attaching fiber-optic cables to local telephone poles by introducing an ordinance to city government called “One Touch Make Ready.”

AT&T, which is battling Google over the same ordinance in Louisville alongside local cable franchise holder Charter Communications, is siding with Comcast in Nashville. In Nashville, Mayor Barry isn’t taking sides. But she has called on the top executive for the company that owns and operates 80 percent of the local utility poles – Nashville Electric Service President and CEO Decosta Jenkins – along with Metro Department of Law Director Jon Cooper to get the three sides in a room together. Google Fiber said it can’t wait around for months while AT&T and Comcast deploy technicians to make room for Google fiber-optic cables on local poles. AT&T and Comcast reps, meanwhile, make arguments based on safety and liability concerns.

Frontier Communications suffered a setback in signing new broadband subscribers during the second quarter due to issues with integrating the Verizon properties it purchased in April, but the company could turn things around with a plan to extend higher speeds over its existing copper network to more of its customer base. CEO Dan McCarthy said that Frontier plans to upgrade its copper plant to provide up to 50 Mbps-capable or higher speeds to additional homes. This included its existing markets and those it entered through the Verizon acquisition where FiOS is not currently available. Specifically, Frontier will upgrade customers from 7 Mbps to 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps.

Being a copper-based technology, the availability of specific speeds will depend on the condition of the copper loops and the distance between where customers reside and the nearest central office (CO) or remote terminal (RT) cabinet. “We have also continued to execute our broadband network upgrade program in both existing and new markets,” McCarthy said “This program will result in the expansion of 50 megabits or higher broadband capability to 2 million homes over the next year.” By extending higher speed services outside of the FiOS FTTH market, McCarthy said that it will be able to more effectively compete with cable providers like Charter Communications and Comcast -- two cable companies that can already deliver speeds of 100 Mbps and above.

Citing continued frustration with the process of developing a coexistence plan for Wi-Fi and LTE-U devices, T-Mobile US executives are keeping the pressure on the Federal Communications Commission to begin approving devices that incorporate LTE-U technology no later than September. "The delay in approving LTE-U devices is stifling innovation and investment in the communications ecosystem – one of the most vibrant segments of our economy that directly affects all Americans. There is no reason, therefore, to wait beyond September 2016 to permit use of this innovative new technology," wrote Steve Sharkey, T-Mobile VP of government affairs, technology and engineering policy, in an ex parte filing.

T-Mobile also brought Nokia experts to the conversation, who said they're prepared today to test devices for coexistence based on the current version of the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) test plan. The Wi-Fi Alliance has said it expects to finalize the test plan by late September. It was delayed after stakeholders were unable to reach consensus on certain signal level tests. T-Mobile said in its most recent filing that while the test plan is nearly complete, it has seen numerous deadlines come and go without finalization of the procedure. Therefore, it's saying that it wants the commission to move forward with a process that doesn't allow delays to extend past September 2016.

AT&T has taken another step to sate the appetite of its broadband customers by once again increasing the monthly usage allowances for its U-verse and GigaPower broadband plans. U-verse customers that are on plans with speed tiers up to and including 300 Mps will see a monthly allowance of 1 terabyte (TB) of data.

What this means is that for customers that subscribe to Internet speeds below 12 Mbps, the new plans triple their current amount of data. Likewise, customers with internet speeds ranging from 12 Mbps to 75 Mbps will see their current allowance double. Meanwhile, AT&T GigaPower customers will receive unlimited home Internet data. As an added bonus, U-verse internet and DIRECTV or U-verse can pay for services on a single bill. Customers that subscribe to the 1 Gbps speed tier on the AT&T GigaPower network will automatically get unlimited home internet data at no additional charge. AT&T customers can also sign up for unlimited home internet data for $30 more a month.

Frontier's woes in West Virginia have come to a new head as competitive provider Citynet is suing Frontier over abusing $40.5 million in federal stimulus funds to build a broadband network that would lock out competitors in the state. In the lawsuit, Citynet accuses Frontier of double-billing, claiming that it falsified records and charged excess fees not authorized by the federal grant that funded the telco's broadband expansion project it completed in 2014.

West Virginia Homeland Security Chief Jimmy Gianato, Chief Technology Officer Gale Given, and former Commerce Secretary Kelly Goes have also been named in the suit. Citynet claims these three state leaders willingly participated in a scheme to abuse government funds. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2014 and Citynet recently updated the suit when the U.S. Justice Department said it would not weigh in. At issue is a $126.3 million federal stimulus broadband grant awarded to West Virginia in 2010. This grant was aimed at providing broadband internet to 1,064 public facilities -- including a mix of schools, libraries, health clinics, courthouses and state police detachments.