North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak said the reasoning behind the Broadband North Dakota Initiative championed by Democratic PSC candidates Tyler Axness and Todd Reisenauer shows the candidates don’t have “a very solid understanding of the status of broadband deployment in [North Dakota] or the jurisdiction of the PSC.” Axness, a state senator who’s challenging Republican Fedorchak for a spot on the PSC, had criticized its performance on telecom issues and said the Broadband North Dakota Initiative “will close the communication gap that exists in remote areas of western North Dakota” (CD Aug 29 p10). Fedorchak said in an email that “a number of business groups are looking at proposals for potential tax incentives to support additional broadband investments. I support that kind of approach. I believe the deregulation of telecom has been a big success for the innovation and advancement of this industry as evidenced by the sweeping changes in the past decade and revolution to wireless and data."

Democratic North Dakota Public Service Commission candidates Tyler Axness and Todd Reisenauer said Tuesday that their Broadband North Dakota policy initiative would “advance North Dakota’s telecommunications infrastructure by incentivizing technology upgrades and providing universal access for every household and business in the state.” The initiative “will close the communication gap that exists in remote areas of western North Dakota,” Reisenauer said in a statement. “Doing so will enable a vast network of sensors and monitors which can be used to notify state leaders of an accident in real-time as well as dispatch first responders and alert environmental cleanup teams.” The Broadband North Dakota Initiative would require residential broadband connections to get a minimum top speed of 6 Mbps regardless of location in the state and would encourage gigabit broadband availability to businesses in the state, the candidates said. The initiative would also incentivize communications infrastructure development through tax credits and low interest loans through the Bank of North Dakota, as well as create a safety hazard sensor network in the state’s western oil patch region that would connect with state officials (http://bit.ly/1u0ZnDL). PSC Chairman Brian Kalk and Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, both Republicans and candidates for re-election, didn’t immediately comment.

The New York Times endorsed Columbia University law professor Timothy Wu, who created the term “net neutrality” in 2003, for the Democratic nomination for New York’s lieutenant governor. Wu, who’s running for the nomination against former Rep. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., “wants to use the lieutenant governor’s job as a pulpit, to become the state’s de facto public advocate, particularly in support of consumer issues, Internet access and economic development zones,” The New York Times said Wednesday in its endorsement editorial. The newspaper said Wu had an “impressive record” in the legal field, including Internet law and policy, but has not previously held elected office (http://nyti.ms/1u0OSQO). Hochul’s campaign, which is backed by incumbent Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, didn’t immediately comment. The primary is Sept. 9.

California Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act (SB-962) into law Monday (http://bit.ly/1pznf1X). The bill, which the Assembly passed earlier this month and the Senate passed in May (CD Aug 13 p12), would require smartphones sold in the state after July 1, 2015, to be pre-equipped with a kill switch that could be activated if the device is lost or stolen. The law “will effectively wipe out the incentive to steal smartphones and curb this crime of convenience, which is fueling street crime and violence within our communities,” said Democratic state Sen. Mark Leno, SB-962’s sponsor, in a statement. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, also a major backer of the bill, said in a statement that “soon, stealing a smartphone won’t be worth the trouble.” CTIA, which has opposed kill switch legislation, continues to believe SB-962 is “unnecessary given the breadth of action the industry has taken,” said Vice President-External and State Affairs Jamie Hastings in a statement. It cited the wireless industry’s voluntary commitment to equip smartphones with anti-theft features, along with creating a stolen phones database and consumer anti-theft education.

General Dynamics Information Technology said the Massachusetts State 911 Department awarded the company the contract to develop, build and operate its next-generation 911 (NG-911) emergency communications system. The contract will let Massachusetts replace its legacy enhanced 911 (E-911) system and comply with the National Emergency Number Association’s i3 architecture standards for local and national interoperability, General Dynamics said Monday. The transition to NG-911 “will effectively transform our analog based system into an IP-based system making it compatible with today’s changing technology and communication methods,” said Massachusetts Public Safety Secretary Andrea Cabral in a General Dynamics news release. The company said it recently deployed a NG-911 system in Morgan County, Ohio, and previously deployed more than 50 other E-911 systems.

AT&T said it will expand its GigaPower network to Cupertino, California. The all-fiber network will bring symmetrical upload and download broadband speeds up to 1 Gbps, and AT&T’s most advanced TV services to consumers and small businesses, AT&T said Wednesday in a news release (http://soc.att.com/XAHGRp). The company is deploying additional fiber and electronics to the existing network in Cupertino “to meet the growing demand for ultra-fast broadband,” it said. Residents and small businesses on the network also will experience TV services “with the ability to watch and record five simultaneous HD streams, and its largest capacity DVR with one terabyte of storage,” it said.

The FirstNet board unanimously approved a three-year spectrum management lease agreement Friday with Texas. The agreement will provide spectral stability to Harris County’s public safety LTE network “to allow the lessons learned to be continually gained from the system and to make sure we're leveraging the investment” in the system, said FirstNet Acting General Manager TJ Kennedy during a conference call. FirstNet hopes it can learn more from the system’s performance and “continue to expand how it is used by first responders in Texas,” he said.

Frontier Communications said it reached an agreement with Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen and the Office of Consumer Counsel (OCC) on conditions for the telco’s proposed purchase of AT&T’s wireline assets, U-verse video and satellite operations in Connecticut, which it said would “guarantee customer and community benefits resulting” from the deal. Frontier agreed not to increase the basic primary residential rates for affected assets for at least 36 months following the deal’s closing and agreed to offer its basic broadband and stand-alone basic broadband services in Connecticut at or below its current prices, it said Tuesday. The telco agreed to invest $63 million between 2015 and 2017 on broadband improvements in Connecticut. Frontier also agreed to accelerate its inspection of AT&T facilities it’s acquiring as part of the deal and committed to continued outreach to Connecticut veterans at targeted job fairs and through the federal Department of Veterans Affairs to improve adoption of the VA’s myHealtheVet and home Telehealth programs. Frontier will also collaborate with the state attorney general’s office and the OCC on ways to reach low-income veterans to provide subsidized broadband service (http://1.usa.gov/1oIWcRa). The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority still needs to approve the deal, which federal regulators have already cleared.

The California Senate voted 27-8 Monday to clear an Assembly-passed version of SB-962, which would require smartphones sold in the state after July 1, 2015, to be pre-equipped with a kill switch that could be activated if the device is lost or stolen. Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has 12 days to consider the bill. A Brown spokesman declined to comment. The state Senate passed SB-962 in May, but the version the Assembly passed last week included additional amendments (CD Aug 8 p15). Democratic state Sen. Mark Leno, SB-962’s author, praised the Senate vote, saying in a news release that “our goal is to swiftly take the wind out of the sails of thieves who have made the theft of smartphones one of the most prevalent street crimes in California’s biggest cities.” San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, another major backer of the bill, said in a statement that the bill could result in smartphones nationwide having kill switches because of voluntary agreements from smartphone manufacturers.

NARUC Telecom Committee Chairman Chris Nelson praised the FCC decision Thursday to seek recommendations from the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service on how the commission should modify the universal service contribution methodology. NARUC had asked the FCC to refer the methodology issue to the joint board “because these are exactly the kinds of decisions Congress had in mind when it created the Joint Board in the first place,” he said in a statement. “The Joint Board process ensures that the agency will receive expert recommendations from the States officials closest to the consumers affected by changes to the Universal Service program” (http://bit.ly/1r7GjSz). The FCC referred the board to its 2012 Further NPRM on the issue, asking for recommendations on modifications to the contribution system that would affect the statutory principle that there be state as well as federal mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service (CD Aug 8 p12).