California PUC staff discussed the Local Number Portability Administration (LNPA) selection during a conference call with FCC Wireline Bureau staffers Thursday, the CPUC said in an ex parte filing Monday. Neustar and Telcordia have been battling for LNPA selection (see 1412030046). The call focused on LNPA services the CPUC “considers critical to 911 operations, and might impact 911 and public safety,” the CPUC said. The call also focused on whether the shortened LNPA transition “poses any special challenges” for the selected vendor, the CPUC said.

The California Public Utilities Commission confirmed Monday that it won’t hold hearings Wednesday and Thursday as part of CPUC's review of Comcast's proposed buy of Time Warner Cable. The CPUC had budgeted time Wednesday and Thursday for evidentiary hearings on the deal as part of its revised review timeline, but canceled them after the commission’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates filed a motion declining to request hearings. CPUC Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer subsequently denied a hearing request from the National Asian American Coalition. The CPUC holds hearings on a proceeding only in response to a stakeholder request. ORA said in its filing, posted Friday, that it didn’t believe it and other stakeholders would have adequate time under the revised timeline to adequately prepare for a hearing. Comcast and other companies involved in Comcast/TWC and related deals filed their opening briefs on the deal Dec. 1, while other stakeholders had until Wednesday to file reply comments. Media Alliance Executive Director Tracy Rosenberg told us she believes the CPUC can still do a thorough review of Comcast/TWC without the hearings because of the material included in other parties’ reply comments, which generally opposed the deal. Hearings would have been preferable because they would have allowed the public an additional opportunity to comment on the deal, Rosenberg said.

The Iowa Chamber Alliance (ICA), a coalition of 16 of the state’s chambers of commerce, said its members support “aggressively” pursuing broadband investment as part of Iowa’s 2015 legislative agenda. The group said it supports “competitive tax treatment” for broadband providers and deployment incentives, which alliance Executive Director John Stineman told us align with the “Connect Every Acre” plan that Republican Gov. Terry Branstad proposed during his successful re-election campaign. Branstad’s plan appears likely to influence Iowa legislators in 2015 as they reconsider a bill to expand broadband access in the state. State legislators failed to pass similar legislation in 2014 (see 1410310059). ICA also backs legislation that would bar the Iowa Utilities Board from regulating broadband, Stineman said.

"Don’t risk being the next AT&T," reads a marketing message headlined, "AT&T fined $52 million for dumping their electronics," that was emailed to us Thursday by 4th Bin, a New York-based recycler that collects and processes e-waste from corporate clients. The email references AT&T’s settlement agreement last month with the California attorney general to resolve allegations that AT&T facilities in California unlawfully dumped hazardous e-waste into landfills over a nine-year period. In the agreement, AT&T technically wasn't fined $52 million as the 4th Bin email suggests, but agreed to pay $23.8 million in civil penalties and spend $28 million the next five years to bring the company into "environmental compliance." In its email, 4th Bin, which is e-Stewards-certified by the Basel Action Network, describes itself as "an advocate for responsible, sustainable and smart decisions in all phases of our client’s technology lifecycle." On California’s finding that AT&T "was not properly recycling their e-waste and was fined $52 million for their actions," AT&T was "hardly alone in their practices," 4th Bin says. "On a daily basis, we are approached by companies who seek free or low cost solutions to the disposal of their e-waste. The companies come in all shapes and sizes, are often well-known brands and many have internal sustainability initiatives and goals. Why are these companies willing to risk data security, financial repercussions and, equally important, their reputation is a question we constantly ask ourselves." The message warns prospective clients that "the next time some e-waste company tries to provide you and your company with a free or low-cost solution, think about AT&T." In "AT&T’s defense," 4th Bin said, the company publicly has committed itself "to spend $28 million dollars to right the ship. AT&T will choose a path of ethical recycling and we agree with this decision." AT&T declined to comment on the 4th Bin campaign.

FairPoint Communications filed a motion for reconsideration with the Maine Public Utilities Commission Thursday over a Nov. 21 PUC ruling that the telco hadn’t adequately demonstrated its need for its requested $62.8 million subsidy from the state USF for supporting provider of last resort (POLR) service for 29,000 customers in the state. The PUC raised the POLR rate in May to $16.69 per month for residential users and $34.28 for businesses. FairPoint’s requested subsidy is estimated to require an additional $5 rate hike per cellphone bill. FairPoint said Thursday that it “has an unconditional obligation to provide service, but the Order refuses to fund the service because the Commission's preferred forward looking cost and embedded cost analyses failed to produce a result that was acceptable to the Commission.” Without the additional subsidy, the telco said it "is faced with at least another year sustaining tens of millions of dollars of losses to provide the service while the Commission and the Legislature toss this POLR funding ‘hot potato’ back and forth.”

The Kansas Corporation Commission’s staff recommended the KCC approve Chanute’s plan to issue bonds to pay for an expansion of the city's municipal broadband network, which serves government and community buildings, plus some local businesses. Chanute says the expansion would let the city provide broadband service throughout its utility service area and support smart grid advanced metering infrastructure. KCC staff said in a report that it believes Chanute’s plans don’t duplicate existing broadband services in the area and that the expansion is appropriate for the city to undertake. AT&T and Cable One also provide broadband service in the Chanute area, but AT&T’s download speeds average 10-25 Mbps and Cable One’s average 50-100 Mbps, both below the Chanute municipal network’s range of 100 Mbps-1 Gbps, KCC staff said. They cited information from the Kansas Statewide Broadband Map Initiative. “Neither AT&T nor Cable One furnish or are currently able to furnish Gigabit connectivity to all of the City of Chanute and three miles thereof, as proposed by the City of Chanute,” KCC staff said in the report. Chanute’s network expansion plans “would not only benefit the citizens of Chanute but its community anchor institutions and community business partners as well,” KCC staff said. “By improving and expanding upon the fiber optic network currently in place by Chanute,” the city is protecting its existing investment in the network, said the staff. AT&T became an official intervener in the case last week, but hasn’t made any filings in KCC’s docket on Chanute’s expansion plans. The telco said in a statement that it wanted to receive information on Chanute’s plans but hasn’t taken a position on the proceeding. Cable One didn't immediately comment.

The New York Public Service Commission won’t vote on whether to approve Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable as part of the PSC's scheduled Thursday meeting, the commission said Tuesday. Thursday’s meeting is the PSC’s last regularly scheduled meeting before the current Dec. 31 deadline for the commission to consider Comcast/TWC. The PSC is empowered to hold a special meeting to consider the deal or it can extend the review deadline in consultation with Comcast and other parties, as it has already done twice. If the PSC doesn’t extend the deadline or vote on Comcast/TWC before the current deadline, the deal would be considered approved by default. A PSC spokesman didn’t indicate how the commission plans to proceed on the review but noted that the commission is continuing its review “given its importance to New York consumers.” Comcast didn’t immediately comment.

Cox Communications said it began providing gigabit broadband service at the Park Place Apartment Homes in Irvine, which Cox said was its first gigabit deployment in Southern California. Cox began offering residential gigabit service in Phoenix in October and has said it plans to offer gigabit in all of its markets by the end of 2016. Cox said it doubled its broadband speeds in October, increasing its Internet Preferred tier to 50 Mbps, its Premier tier to 100 Mbps and its Ultimate tier to 150 Mbps, it said Monday in a news release.

Correction: A National Labor Relations Board judge found Cablevision not guilty of "surface bargaining” in its negotiations with Communications Workers of America in New York, a charge that Cablevision said has helped block an employee vote in Brooklyn on recertifying CWA as its union (see 1412050065).

National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge Steven Fish found Cablevision and CEO James Dolan guilty Thursday of breaking several labor laws in their ongoing battle with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The judge ruled in CWA's favor on several claims, including that Cablevision supervisors barred employees from engaging in union activity and that Dolan had increased wages at a non-unionized Bronx location to prevent it from unionizing. Fish found Cablevision not guilty of "surface bargaining," finding that the company negotiated with CWA in good faith. He refused a CWA request to extend its certification to represent Cablevision workers for another year. CWA President Larry Cohen praised the NLRB decision in a statement, saying the NLRB needs to “take immediate action” and the New York state and New York City governments “need to treat Cablevision and all Dolan family controlled entities like the major law breaker that is documented extensively in this decision.” Cablevision said “we call on the NLRB and the CWA to finally cease their efforts to block the vote that Brooklyn employees have twice petitioned for the right to hold.”