July 2013

A key California state Senate committee is backing phone giant AT&T in a clash with regulators over how to update the state's LifeLine program that provides cut-rate phone service for 1.2 million low-income consumers who now must use old-fashioned land lines.

The Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee voted 6 to1 to support a bill turning LifeLine into a voucher system, providing discounts on phone services and getting rid of most oversight by the California Public Utilities Commission. The bill goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee in August. Users now pay about $7 a month for a LifeLine package of basic services determined by the PUC. Lifeline, similar to other state programs providing lower-cost electricity and natural gas service for the poor, is financed by ratepayers through a small surcharge on monthly bills. The commission is wrapping up plans to expand Lifeline so that participants, say a couple making $25,000 a year, can get affordable cellphone service along with features currently available from the landline program, such as free access to toll-free numbers and unlimited incoming calls. Instead, AT&T — a Sacramento lobbying powerhouse — and other telecommunications companies want to offer participants $11.85 worth of discounts a month, but leave the monthly phone charge to be set by the phone companies, not the PUC.

Robert Post misses his phone line. Post, 85, has a pacemaker that needs to be checked once a month by phone. But the copper wiring that once connected his home to the rest of the world is gone, and the phone company refuses to restore it.

In October 2012, Superstorm Sandy pushed the sea over Post's neighborhood in Mantoloking, N.J., leaving hundreds of homes wrecked, and one floating in the bay. The homes on this sandy spit of land along the Jersey Shore are being rebuilt, but Verizon doesn't want to replace washed-away lines and waterlogged underground cables. Phone lines are outdated, the company says. Mantoloking is one of the first places in the country where the traditional phone line is going dead. For now, Verizon, the country's second-largest landline phone company, is taking the lead by replacing phone lines with wireless alternatives. But competitors including AT&T have made it clear they want to follow. It's the beginning of a technological turning point, representing the receding tide of copper-wire landlines that have been used since commercial service began in 1877.

Leaders of of WiscNet, the Internet service provider the University of Wisconsin System dropped last month, told state senators they are confident that the company will be able to continue providing services to public schools and libraries despite the loss of 27% of its revenue without the university business.

When UW System officials announced their decision to drop WiscNet last month, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers predicted a ripple effect that would leave WiscNet's other clients — 75% of Wisconsin public school districts and 90% of libraries — without a provider or forced to contract with a more expensive vendor. "This is a critical time for all entities involved," said David Lois, the executive director of WiscNet, which has worked closely within the UW System for the last 15 years to build a "complex and intricate grid" that provides network services to the university system. Lois said that while the system made up a large percentage of the company's revenue, it also accounts for a large part of its expenses. The UW System intends to operate its own independent network service, a move UW-Madison Provost Paul DeLuca told the Journal Sentinel last month was not the system's preferred option and would likely result in higher costs than remaining with WiscNet.

Hiring of technology professionals has been on the upswing in the first half of this year, with new IT hires accounting for about 10 percent of all the job growth in the U.S. in June, according to two independent assessments.

Total tech employment reached 4.47 million in June, an increase of 22,600 jobs from the prior month, or a .51 percent gain, according to TechServe Alliance, an IT services industry group which tracks employment data month-to-month. The total excludes tech manufacturing employment. Similarly, Foote Partners, which researches IT employment trends, reported a gain of 18,200 new tech jobs last month. These gains are coming at the same time that some tech employers are cutting jobs.