The monthly per-line surcharge for the Relay Missouri dual-party telephone relay service for the deaf, hearing-impaired and speech-impaired will drop from 8 cents to 6 cents Dec. 1, the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) said in an order last week (http://on.mo.gov/1qXh1bh). The PSC was acting on a staff recommendation for reducing the surcharge, which appears on the phone bills of all Missouri wireline customers. The PSC had said reducing the surcharge would allow the fund for Relay Missouri “to remain solvent and available for those customers who need it, while reducing the bills of all Missouri landline subscribers."

A group of Connecticut state officials and mayors issued a joint Request for Qualifications (RFQ) Monday seeking information from interested parties in a bid to encourage development of gigabit broadband networks in New Haven, Stamford and West Hartford. The officials’ RFQ seeks free or heavily discounted broadband service with a minimum 10 Mbps speed to “underserved and disadvantaged” residential areas. “It’s time we tear down the walls to gigabit Internet access in Connecticut,” said Democratic state Sen. Beth Bye in a news release. Other municipalities in Connecticut may also join the RFQ by submitting an addendum, said state Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz in the news release. The RFQ is “an important step toward making Connecticut the first gigabit state,” said state Comptroller Kevin Lambo in the release. New Haven’s city government said it will administer and coordinate the RFQ.

Columbia University law professor Timothy Wu, who created the term “net neutrality” in 2003, lost his bid for the Democratic nomination for New York lieutenant governor Wednesday to former Rep. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y. He received 37 percent of the vote to her 55 percent, according to unofficial results updated Wednesday afternoon. The New York Times had endorsed Wu, who was running with failed Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Zephyr Teachout, in part based on his “impressive record” on Internet law and other legal issues (CD Aug 29 p11). Hochul was running with incumbent Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who won against Teachout with 60 percent of the vote.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) recommended Monday that customers in the existing 740 area code area should begin using 10-digit or 11-digit dialing starting Sept. 20 to make the practice “second nature” when it becomes mandatory March 21 as part of the rollout of the overlapping 220 area code. Carriers are set to begin offering numbers using the 220 area code in the 740 area code area, which includes much of central and southeast Ohio, beginning April 22, PUCO said. The commission said it approved plans for the 220 area code overlay in December amid projections that the 740 area code would run out of available phone numbers in Q2 2015 (http://1.usa.gov/1ufCJcR). PUCO had also explored dividing the 740 area code area in half and requiring customers in half of the area to change phone numbers to one in the 220 area code (CD Nov 7 p15). Current 740 area code telephone numbers will not change with the introduction of the 220 area code overlay, PUCO said.

The U.S. broadband market is “robust in terms of speed, affordability and choice,” and while some municipal broadband projects aim to fill in some gaps in rural areas, the projects have had problems, said a study by the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at New York Law School. It was submitted as an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1uGfvuA) in the petitions to pre-empt state laws imposing barriers on municipal broadband projects, posted Friday in FCC dockets 14-115 and 14-116 for the petitions filed by Wilson, North Carolina, and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Overly optimistic projections about costs and take rates doomed some projects, the study said, while moderately successful ones were based on “unique circumstances” that would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible to replicate.” Governments are not well-equipped to compete in dynamic markets, the study said. It said municipal governments “do not have a strong record of keeping pace with technological advances or in shaping policies that reflect rapidly evolving consumer preferences for new services.” The study also said a project “often diverts scarce public resources from more pressing priorities."

The Media Alliance asked the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to grant the group party status in its ongoing review of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal. The Media Alliance said in a filing posted Thursday that it seeks to ensure “the free flow of information throughout California to maximize civic engagement and access to information.” The group said it would address how Comcast/TWC will affect diverse communities in the state and the state’s information sector. The Media Alliance said its participation in CPUC’s review is “crucial to ensuring the needs of users and residents are fully considered and [we] would like to have input into the proceeding” (http://bit.ly/1o7JmIi).

The Connecticut Internet Service Providers Association (CTISPA) urged Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) Friday to require Frontier Communications to offer DSL service to ISP end users in Connecticut who don’t maintain plain old telephone service (POTS) -- known as offering a “dry loop” -- when ISPs buy wholesale DSL transport. The dry loop offering should be a public interest condition in Connecticut’s settlement with Frontier for regulatory approval of its purchase of AT&T’s wireline, broadband and video assets in the state, CTISPA said (http://bit.ly/1nAYGgA). PURA is considering revisions to the settlement after it rejected late last month a settlement version that Frontier reached with state Attorney General George Jepsen and the Office of Consumer Counsel (CD Sept 3 p16). AT&T currently offers dry loops in the state only to its own customers but not to ISP end users, still requiring those users to maintain a POTS line in order to have DSL while using a wholesale DSL transport service, CTISPA said. Elsewhere, AT&T offers dry loops to its own customers and ISP end users, the group said. PURA has jurisdiction to require the dry loop condition because it is a “local voice loop issue” rather than an ISP service issue or DSL provisioning issue, CTISPA said.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto is working on legislation that would require smartphones sold in the state to be equipped with anti-theft kill switch technology, a spokeswoman told us Wednesday after a report appeared in the Reno Gazette-Journal (http://on.rgj.com/1ppP2N7). The bill would become effective July 1, and would impose a fine of $500 to $2,500 per smartphone sold after that date that didn’t include the technology, the spokeswoman said. The bill would follow California’s enactment last week of its own kill switch legislation and Minnesota’s enactment of anti-theft legislation in May. New York legislators plan to re-introduce their own kill switch legislation when the state’s legislature reconvenes in January, while similar efforts in Illinois and Rhode Island are on hold (CD Sept 2 p4). CTIA, which has opposed kill switch legislation as redundant to wireless industry commitments, didn’t immediately comment.

C Spire said it reached an agreement with Jackson, Mississippi, to bring its gigabit fiber network to the state’s capital city (http://bit.ly/1lA7nMy). C Spire began selecting cities for its fiber network in November, when it said it would bring the fiber network to Batesville, Clinton, Corinth, Hattiesburg, Horn Lake, McComb, Quitman, Ridgeland and Starkville (CD Nov 5 p13). C Spire’s extension of the network to Jackson “will address so many needs in our city from education and health care to business expansion while improving home values,” said Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber, a Democrat, in a Tuesday news release. C Spire CEO Hu Meena said in a statement that a primary goal of the network’s deployment “is to ensure Mississippi has easy access to fiber technology just as we are delivering on our goal of ensuring consumers and businesses in our state have access to the latest wireless technologies.” Residents could begin pre-registering for the service Tuesday, with C Spire saying it would use pre-registrations to determine which neighborhoods will be connected to the network. C Spire said its existing customers will pay $70 for just the fiber service, while non-customers will have to pay $80. The carrier is based in Jackson, Mississippi’s largest city and also where Meena lives.

Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority denied Frontier Communications’ proposed settlement with state officials on public interest conditions for state approval of its proposed purchase of AT&T’s wireline, broadband and video assets there. PURA ordered Frontier Thursday to redraft the agreement with state Attorney General George Jepsen and the Office of Consumer Counsel (http://bit.ly/1lx0SKj). Elements of the agreement released last month (CD Aug 13 p13) “contain merit for further discussion in an effort to rehabilitate them wherever possible,” PURA said. The regulator said it will hold a technical meeting Sept. 10 to examine issues it had with the proposed settlement. PURA said it believes Frontier’s proposal to cap residential rates for 36 months isn’t a real benefit because residential rates weren’t forecast to rise, while Frontier hasn’t sufficiently explained its proposed $63 million broadband investment in Connecticut. Frontier’s proposal to work with the state Department of Veterans Affairs on outreach to state veterans is “premature” before the agency approves the partnership, while its proposal to let PURA determine which charities receive Frontier’s $500,000 in annual charitable contributions in the state is “not appropriate,” the regulator said. Jepsen said in a statement that PURA didn’t note all of the benefits contained in the proposed settlement, which “narrowed issues, produced benefits that might not otherwise be achievable in a contested final decision, and left PURA able to address in this docket or otherwise other issues of concern.” Jepsen said he disagrees “with other conclusions, including that the settlement is not enforceable -- it is enforceable by PURA itself, as with all settlements it approves.” A Frontier spokeswoman said the telco remains “confident” its proposed deal with AT&T is in the best interests of Connecticut residents.