Among many other problems, the quality of the Washington, D.C., area's Metrorail radio system and radio communications significantly affect the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's ability to schedule and do maintenance work, to manage abnormal and emergency events, and to ensure the safety of trains and personnel on the right-of-way, said a report released Wednesday by the Federal Transit Administration. WMATA’s communications system includes the comprehensive radio communications system, conventional mobile radio systems, Metro transit police mobile data terminals, public safety radio system interfaces, public safety system distributed antenna system, fire and intrusion alarm systems and a yard security system, as well the Metrorail station digital video recorder system and parking garage closed circuit TV, the report said. WMATA views the report as a road map for continuous safety improvements, it said in a statement. "We will strengthen our operations, customer service and safety culture through training, staffing and ensuring compliance of safety policies and procedures," WMATA said. "We remain committed to creating an even safer system."

Jonathan Adelstein, PCIA president; James Young, Crown Castle International chief operating officer; and Jessica Zufolo, FirstNet director-federal grants strategy, will keynote Wednesday at the New York State Wireless Association's Wireless Forum, a release from NYSWA said. Adelstein will speak at 8 a.m. on the business, deployment and regulatory trends driving the wireless infrastructure industry, it said. Young will outline the wireless infrastructure industry’s growth and transformation, at 11:30 a.m. Zufolo will highlight the strides being made in strengthening emergency first response through wireless technologies and federal funding, at 3 p.m. The forum is at Chelsea Piers, NYSWA said.

Front Range Internet completed a fully redundant, 10 GB fiber network upgrade, it said in a news release. FRII is one of northern Colorado’s longest-standing Internet and commercial data services providers and has been principally serving regional businesses and municipalities with a 1 GB fiber network since 2002, it said. The network is part of a series of infrastructure investments, including a $2.3 million data center that was completed by FRII early this year, it said. The network’s fiber ring utilizes the existing underground cable of the Platte River Power Authority and has redundant fiber connections to ensure uninterrupted connectivity, it said.

The Connecticut Siting Council rejected Tower Holding’s application for a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need for a cell tower and training facility in Farmington, Connecticut, during a meeting last week, said an attorney for the council. The tower has been a point of contention in the community, getting opposition from neighborhood residents since the beginning of the application process. The council found that the effects associated with the construction, maintenance and operation of a telecommunications/training facility at the proposed site aren't possible to weigh when compared with need, and, as such, can't be determined to be in harmony with policies of the state concerning such effects, thus presenting cause to deny this application, said a draft of the decision in docket No. 454. The council staff is incorporating into the draft documents the revisions and recommendations that council members expressed during the meeting, the attorney said.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office wrote eBay and PayPal Tuesday about the companies' amended user agreements and their potential to allow "robo-messaging." The letters point to particular sections of the updated agreements that Schneiderman's office said allow PayPal and eBay to contact "customers using 'autodialed or prerecorded calls and text messages' for a wide range of purposes, including to 'collect a debt, poll opinions through surveys or questionnaires' and 'contact [users] with offers and promotions.'" The FCC sent its own letter to PayPal Thursday, saying it's "concerned that these amendments [to the user agreements] may violate federal laws governing the use of autodialed, prerecorded, and artificial voice calls, including text messages." The FCC also repeated its rules for collecting written consent from customers before beginning robocalls, and warned that the current language of the user agreement might violate regulations. The commission said it prohibits a company from "requiring a consumer to consent to receive autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing or advertising calls as a condition of purchasing any property, good, or service, and the company must give consumers notice of their right to refuse to give such consent." Schneiderman's office requested answers to questions in its letters to both companies be submitted by June 19. "We have received a letter from the FCC and the New York State Attorney General's office, and look forward to responding," a PayPal spokesperson said Thursday. "We strive to be as clear as possible with our customers and clarified our policies and practices las[t] week on the PayPal blog. Our customers can choose not to receive autodialed or prerecorded message calls."

Nevada’s definition of personal information in data security law expands July 1. It will include: a username, unique identifier or email address in combination with a password, access code, or security question and answer that would permit access to an online account; medical identification or health insurance identification number; and a driver authorization card number, said a Hunton & Williams blog post Tuesday. Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval signed AB-179 into law in May, his office has said. “Although Nevada’s data security law previously excluded ‘publicly available information ... lawfully made available to the general public’ from the definition of personal information," the law firm said, the bill "narrows the scope of that exclusion, limiting it to information available ‘from federal, state or local governmental records.’”

Residents in Vermont can now get 10 Gbps Internet service to their homes for $400 a month from VTel, said a news release from the company. VTel’s 10 Gbps residential Internet is being funded by an $85 million VTel phone network award from the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service, it said. The project is expected to be complete by June 30, it said Thursday.

Allied Fiber connected its open-access fiber networks with the city network of Palm Coast, Florida, said a news release Monday from the company. Allied Fiber is an open-access, integrated, network-neutral co-location and dark fiber superstructure. Palm Coast's FiberNET network now has access through Allied Fiber to the major content distribution centers throughout the state of Florida. Palm Coast recently completed construction of a lateral connection in Bunnell, Florida, that connects the city's FiberNET to the Allied Fiber route, the release said. The FiberNET fiber network covers more than 50-miles of major roadways in Palm Coast, including Palm Coast Parkway, Belle Terre Parkway, along the U.S. 1 corridor and down State Road 100 into Bunnell, Allied Fiber said. FiberNET also provides service to all Palm Coast facilities, Flagler County schools and more than two-dozen businesses, it said.

Kansas City, Missouri, and Cisco signed an agreement to deploy a Smart+Connected City framework to transform urban municipal services, said a Cisco news release. As part of the framework, Cisco said it's working with a group of business partners to bring together an ecosystem to develop applications including smart lighting, digital kiosks, a development data portal, and smart water innovation development. Sprint will also deploy Cisco hardware to construct and manage an intelligent Wi-Fi network that will serve as the backbone of the connectivity platform, Cisco said.

Cogeco Cable subsidiary Atlantic Broadband agreed buy substantially all of the assets of MetroCast Connecticut for $200 million, said a Monday news release from Atlantic Broadband. The tax-adjusted purchase price, which reflects the tax benefit of amortizing intangible assets in an asset purchase, is approximately 7.9 times the 2015 expected adjusted EBITDA of Atlantic, the release said. MetroCast Connecticut’s network passes close to 70,000 homes and businesses in nine communities in eastern Connecticut, the release said. MetroCast Connecticut’s system also has about 23,000 TV, 22,000 Internet and 8,000 phone customers, Atlantic said. “With eastern Connecticut’s strong demographics and MetroCast Connecticut’s well-maintained networks, this acquisition brings sizeable residential and business growth opportunities,” said Atlantic Broadband CEO Richard Shea. Cogeco Cable intends to finance this transaction through non-recourse debt to be issued by Atlantic Broadband, the company said.