FairPoint Communications stopped paying for health insurance coverage for the 1,700 workers who went on strike Oct. 16 in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, a FairPoint spokeswoman said. Workers are eligible for the plan if they work a minimum number of hours, the spokeswoman said. The striking workers can still get coverage under the federal COBRA law, but must pay for the coverage, the FairPoint spokeswoman said. The telco’s stoppage of paying for striking workers’ healthcare benefits is a typical tactic companies use to put pressure on the workers, said a spokesman for the workers, who are affiliated with the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Health insurance has been one of the focal points of stalled contract negotiations between FairPoint and the workers. FairPoint wants to reduce the share of premiums it pays to 80 percent from the current 100 percent. FairPoint’s desire to modify its health insurance policy and retirement benefits would “bring benefits in line with what we believe to be mainstream norms and to transition union represented employees to similar benefit plans offered to other FairPoint employees, including management,” the telco said in an open letter released Monday. The proposed changes will “enhance FairPoint's ability to price products competitively and are critical to our ability to meet the needs of the customers, communities and economies of northern New England,” the telco said.

The Princeton, Massachusetts, Broadband Municipal Light Plant (PBMLP) and Princeton Broadband Committee plan joint hearings in November ahead of a town meeting set for Nov. 18 to vote on a proposal to borrow $1.4 million to prepare for a planned fiber project. The hearings are set for Nov. 12 and 13 in Princeton’s Town Hall Annex, PBMLP said. Princeton isn’t financially responsible for the $3.7 million in costs for installing the fiber, but the town is responsible for some of the work to prepare for the project, PBMLP said. Internet service will cost $95 per month, PBMLP said. The project’s proponents are also seeking reimbursement for the project via the Massachusetts Broadband Institute, which is deciding how to disburse $45 million in grants to unserved communities in the state.

FairPoint Communications is offering a $5,000 reward for information on who’s responsible for damage to its network and equipment, after what it calls a “recent spate of vandalism” to its property. FairPoint has investigated eight vandalism incidents against its infrastructure and facilities since 1,700 of its workers began an ongoing strike Oct. 17 (see 1410170025). The telco said it had only one incident in the five years before the strike. “Most of the strikers are exercising their legal right to stop working and to publicize their position, but it is no coincidence that these acts of vandalism are being committed during the strike,” a spokeswoman said in a news release. A coalition of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) chapters in the states where FairPoint workers are on strike -- Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont -- said in a news release that FairPoint is using the claims of vandalism incidents to distract the public. “In the course of mobile picketing, our members have witnessed replacement workers engaged in unsafe practices that endanger themselves and the public,” said Glenn Brackett, business manager for IBEW Local 2320, in the news release. “We are gathering these reports [of alleged safety violations] in order to file complaints with the proper authorities. Far from endangering the network, our members are taking actions to protect the public from replacement workers’ recklessness.”

Cox Communications said it plans to begin offering gigabit broadband service in Chesapeake, Virginia, and other areas of the state. Chesapeake will be the first Virginia location where gigabit service will be available from Cox. The cable operator didn’t provide a specific timetable for the other in-state deployments. Cox began offering gigabit service in Phoenix earlier this month. Cox said Tuesday it anticipates deploying gigabit speeds in all of its targeted markets nationwide by the end of 2016.

Frontier Communications is offering gigabit-speed broadband in several neighborhoods in Beaverton, Oregon, it said Monday. The deployment fulfills CEO Maggie Wilderotter’s promise in July to provide gigabit speeds in the Portland area in the near future, Frontier said. “Frontier has invested more than $128 million in recent years to upgrade and enhance our Oregon network,” Wilderotter said Monday in a news release. Frontier said it will deploy gigabit service in other parts of the state as continued network upgrades occur into 2015. The telco said it offers speeds of up to 100 Mbps in other parts of Beaverton, as well as in Forest Grove, Gresham, Hillsboro, McMinnville, Newberg, Sherwood, Tigard, Tualatin and Wilsonville.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal awarded $36.7 million in Connections for Classrooms grants Monday to 103 of the state’s school districts to upgrade their broadband access. Top grants included $8.43 million to DeKalb County Public Schools, $1.53 million to Gwinnett County Public Schools, $1.5 million to Laurens County Public Schools and $1.42 million to Atlanta Public Schools, said the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement. Deal, a Republican, announced the grants based on recommendations from the state’s Digital Learning Task Force. “A key portion of its recommendations was to build out the technology infrastructure necessary for effective digital learning, and these funds will go a long way toward helping us achieve that goal and bridge the digital divide” in schools, Deal said in a statement.

New York politicians and public interest groups planned a hearing Monday night on the FCC net neutrality rulemaking and Comcast's planned purchase of Time Warner Cable. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, a Democrat, New York City Mayoral Counsel Maya Wiley and former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps were to host the hearing because FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has “ignored” requests for a field hearing in the state, they said. “After waiting months for the FCC to get out of the Beltway, advocates are taking initiative,” Copps said in a Free Press news release. “The voices of millions of Americans must not be ignored. A cloistered conversation in Washington, D.C., advances the special interests, not the public interest. It's time for everyone to speak, and be heard.” The FCC didn’t comment. Interest groups Common Cause, Consumers Union and MAG-Net are also involved in the hearing. Computer & Communications Industry Association President Ed Black said in a statement that “it’s encouraging that Internet users are raising their voices against these threats to the Open Internet and that public officials are listening.”

A well-trained and stable cybersecurity workforce is “critical” to protecting states against mounting cyberthreats, the National Governors Association (NGA) said Monday in a paper. Governors should ensure that their existing workforce has the “requisite skills to protect and defend state networks and critical infrastructure,” which could in the long term require realigning state education and workforce programs to support cybersecurity training, the NGA said. The group also encouraged governors to utilize the National Guard’s cyber resources for training and incident response purposes. Maryland has “worked aggressively to develop our highly skilled cyber workforce -- this will help address both the state’s and the nation’s cybersecurity challenges, and will also foster growth in our innovative and job-creating cybersecurity business sector,” said Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley, co-chairman of the NGA’s Resource Center for State Cybersecurity, in a news release.

Frontier Communications said it completed its buy of AT&T’s Connecticut broadband, video and wireline assets Friday, along with Dish Network’s satellite TV customers in the state (http://bit.ly/1tkx5HE). Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority approved the deal earlier this month (see 1410150070). Frontier separately said Friday that it has made gigabit fiber service available to business and residential customers in six areas of Durham, North Carolina.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced $190.5 million in Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding Wednesday for broadband deployments and other advanced communications infrastructure improvements in 19 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The 25 projects being funded through the USDA grants and loans include a $24 million loan to Arkansas’ Arkwest Communications to provide voice, broadband and Internet TV service to almost 4,000 customers and make other system improvements. Other projects include a $2.5 million grant to Nexus Systems to provide broadband in Powhatan, Louisiana, and a $750,000 grant to public TV broadcasters in the U.S. Virgin Islands to replace analog production and satellite equipment with high-definition equipment, USDA said (http://1.usa.gov/ZOODPu).