Fierce

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.

In a filing at the Federal Communications Commission, T-Mobile hammered Verizon's new price plans as it said competition in the US wireless market is thriving.

The operator cited its uncarrier marketing strategy, which has disrupted the wireless industry in several ways and driven T-Mobile's recent success. The company said some of its tactics have been adopted by other major wireless carriers – Verizon and AT&T, namely – illustrating that competition is thriving in the US mobile market. The filing was submitted as a public comment in advance of the FCC's annual report on the state of competition in the wireless industry, which is due later this year.

AT&T has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to discontinue its BellSouth Analog Voice Grade Private Line services in Carbon Hill (AL) and in Kings Point (FL) a -- two markets where the telecommunication company has been conducting IP transition tests. After AT&T gets necessary regulatory approval, the service provider said in an FCC filing that it would stop offering the service in its IP-Trial wire centers on or after October 14, 2016.

The BellSouth Analog Voice Grade Private Line services are legacy TDM-based services that provide an analog channel for the transmission of asynchronous, or synchronous serial data at rates of up to 19.2, 50.0, or 230.4 Kbps. AT&T also offers optional arrangements for this service at 18.74 or 40.08 Kbps. In wording that is similar to other requests AT&T has made to discontinue services in its BellSouth territory, the provider said in its filing that "The public convenience and necessity will not be adversely affected by the discontinuance of this service because there is no demand in the Trial Wire Centers for this service, and AT&T has other products available to serve low capacity data needs." AT&T currently offers a number of IP-based replacement services that provide much higher transmission speeds over its copper and fiber-based infrastructure. Among the other choices customers have in these markets are AT&T Switched Ethernet 2.0 Mbps (ASE 2.0) service and AT&T Business DSL Internet service (IPDSL) services.

CenturyLink is replacing its aging copper-based wireline facilities in seven cities, potentially setting itself up for a wave of protests from consumers and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) that use existing facilities -- similar to those faced by Verizon and AT&T as they transition their legacy networks.
Two of the states where it will replace copper with fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) facilities are Minnesota and Washington, which are part of a broader initiative CenturyLink has taken to support 1 Gbps speed services for residential and business customers. In 2014, CenturyLink announced that it will extend its FTTH service footprint to residential and business customers in select locations in 16 cities. As part of replacement strategy, CenturyLink is deploying a FTTH overlay architecture that the company says will enable it to support more of its customers transitioning to broadband services. "Growth in the area requires CenturyLink to install Fiber Based Access to its customer," CenturyLink said in a Federal Communications Commission filing. "The copper loops will be replaced by fiber loops as customers migrate to higher speed Broadband Internet Access (BIA)." CenturyLink added that unbundled copper loops "may not be available to an individual address after the planned completion/retirement date." Outside of Minnesota and Washington, CenturyLink filed separate copper retirement notices in six other states: Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

AT&T and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have begun the negotiation process for a new contract covering 2,000 of the telecommunication's Internet workers nationwide.

Lisa Bolton, VP of CWA telecommunications and technologies in Bedminster (NJ) said that similar to other contract negotiations, workers covered under the contract are looking for a contract that provides job security, affordable health care and retirement benefits. "AT&T is a very successful company, leading the telecommunications and video industry. Our members have helped build that success," Bolton said. "It's our turn, and it's time for AT&T to deliver a contract that gives workers at NIC our fair share." AT&T Internet is just one of several contracts the telecommunication company is in the process of negotiating with the CWA.

Two law enforcement officials are hoping for reappointment to the board of the First Responder Network Authority, which is charged with planning, building and operating the LTE-based, 700 MHz nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN).

Chuck Dowd, now retired from the New York Police Department (NYPD), is seeking reappointment to the FirstNet board, as is Paul Fitzgerald, the sheriff of Story County, Iowa.

Including the appointments of Dowd and Fitzgerald, a total of four of the 12 appointments of non-permanent members to the FirstNet Board are expiring this month. The Secretary of Commerce may reappoint individuals to serve on the FirstNet board provided they have not served two consecutive full three-year terms.

Former board Chairman Sam Ginn, a long-time telecom executive, is not seeking reappointment to the board, so that vacancy must be filled.

CableLabs' recently developed DOCSIS 3.1 spec is more than capable of delivering average downstream speeds far above 1 Gbps, but its ubiquitous deployment is still several years away. That means cable companies will have to rely on the current DOCSIS 3.0 parameters in what amounts to a marketing arms race with Google and AT&T's fast-proliferating fiber networks. Is this even possible? Do these guys have something else up their sleeve, like maybe offering FTTP to the finite number of subscribers who do order 1 Gbps service?

Comcast's and Level 3's pending acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and TW Telecom could have a major effect on the status of the top US Ethernet providers, reports Vertical Systems Group in its Mid-2014 US Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard.

When the deals are completed, these service providers will immediately enhance their Ethernet footprints and service sets.

Canby Telcom, a regional telecommunications company serving the northern Willamette Valley of Oregon, is the latest service provider to launch a 1 Gbps-based fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service, providing service to more than 2,500 local residents and businesses.

To deliver the FTTH service, Canby is using Adtran's Gigabit hardware portfolio, including the Total Access 5004 platform.

"This development is a tremendous asset to existing businesses, education and the overall community economic health by retaining local jobs and attracting even more industries and new job opportunities to our town," said Renate Mengelberg, economic-development director with the city of Canby.

Syracuse (NY) is tired of waiting for its two local service providers Verizon and Time Warner Cable to give it better broadband service so Mayor Stephanie Miner (D) is investigating how the city could build its own fiber-based broadband network.

Mayor Miner said that high-speed Internet is "the modern day equivalent of infrastructure," adding: "It's clear that broadband is going to be a foundation of our new economy."