Jimm Phillips

Kentucky will partner with the Macquarie Group investment firm to deploy a 3,000-mile fiber “middle mile” network in the state, Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said Tuesday. The Next Generation Kentucky Information Highway (I-Way) project is meant to fix the state’s long-standing lack of broadband access, which “has damaged our ability to attract business and to explore modern opportunities in healthcare and education,” Beshear said during a news conference. Kentucky ranks 46th nationally in high-speed broadband availability, with 23 percent of its rural areas lacking broadband connectivity, Beshear’s office said.

Congress and Cuba will need to make their intentions clear before it will be evident how much of an effect President Barack Obama’s plan to restore diplomatic ties and some commercial ties with Cuba (see 1412170053) will have on the U.S. communications sector’s presence in that island nation, telecom industry lawyers told us. The White House partially focused Obama’s announcement of the plan on how it could increase Cubans’ access to telecom and the Internet, but Wednesday’s announcement alone does little to advance beyond previously announced changes in U.S. telcos’ ability to connect with Cuba, the lawyers said.

The Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) voted unanimously Tuesday to allow the city of Chanute to issue revenue bonds for its planned expansion of its municipal broadband network, affirming a KCC staff recommendation that said the expansion wouldn’t duplicate existing private sector broadband services (see 1412090041). The KCC’s approval of the Chanute expansion caps a year in which the city also opposed the controversial Municipal Communications Network and Private Telecommunications Investment Safeguards Act (SB-304), which would have restricted municipal broadband deployments. The state Senate Commerce Committee scuttled SB-304 in February amid opposition from Chanute, Google and others (see report in the Feb. 4 issue). The Kansas Legislature appears unlikely to reconsider municipal broadband restrictions during its next session, but 2015 could prove active for such legislation elsewhere, industry observers told us.

Iridium remains optimistic it has a strong future in areas of the satellite industry where it already holds a competitive advantage, particularly as it prepares to launch its Iridium NEXT system, said CEO Matt Desch Tuesday. Iridium plans to launch 81 satellites over the next few years to accommodate the NEXT constellation, with the first two deploying next summer, Desch said during a Washington Space Business Roundtable event. All 81 satellites should be in orbit and operational by the second half of 2017, he said. Iridium has said the NEXT satellites will provide significantly more capacity than the company’s current satellite constellation and will allow more efficient spectrum use (see 1412020050).

The New Jersey Assembly unanimously passed its version of Caller ID anti-spoofing legislation Monday -- the Truth in Caller Identification Act (A3002). The bill would make Caller ID spoofing illegal in the state when an entity uses the practice to defraud, harm or steal. The bill allows for a $10,000 fine for a first offense and up to a $20,000 fine for each additional offense. The Senate is still considering an identical version of the bill (S743). The bill would also direct the state attorney general to issue cease and desist orders for fraudulent spoofing and would allow judges to award trebled damages in spoofing lawsuits.

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.

Federal and state regulators’ authority under Communications Act Sections 251 and 252 to require interconnection agreements in an IP format remains an open question given continued proceedings at the FCC and at the state level, industry lawyers said Friday. AT&T is suing the Michigan Public Service Commission in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo over the PSC’s decision earlier this year to require the telco to allow IP-to-IP interconnection with Sprint (see 1404170038). There are also ongoing or recent interconnection issues in Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio and Puerto Rico, said Benjamin Aron, Sprint state regulatory counsel-Northeast, at an FCBA event.

The Senate passed the Department of Homeland Security-centric National Cybersecurity Protection Act (S-2519) by unanimous consent Wednesday. The bill codifies DHS’s current cybersecurity role, primarily via the department’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (see 1412080071). Senate passage of the bill is “critical” for DHS to continue to build “strong relationships with businesses, state and local governments, and other entities across the country so that we can all be better prepared to stop cyber attacks,” said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del., in a statement.

The Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) said Tuesday it's considering delaying a vote on a new incentive regulation plan (IRP) for FairPoint Communications while the board does a separate investigation into issues with FairPoint’s service quality in the state. The PSB is required to issue findings on service quality as part of issuing a new IRP. The PSB is initiating the service quality investigation in response to more than 450 consumer complaints between July and the end of November, along with a Nov. 28 outage that partially knocked out connectivity to Vermont’s 911 system (see 1412050055).

The Senate passed the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (S-2521) on a voice vote Monday. The bill would update the existing Federal Information Security Management Act, and direct the Department of Homeland Security to create rules for federal agencies’ response to government data leaks. The Senate Homeland Security Committee cleared the bill in June (see 1406270036). The House will need to sign off on S-2521, which differs from a House-passed version of the bill (HR-1163). House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who sponsored HR-1163, doesn’t support S-2521 and is continuing to encourage the Senate to approve HR-1163, a spokeswoman said. The Senate is still expected to consider the National Cybersecurity Protection Act (S-2519) before the lame-duck session ends this week, an industry lobbyist told us. S-2519 would codify the DHS's current cybersecurity role, including the role of its National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (see 1412080071). The version of S-2519 up for Senate consideration includes language from an earlier version of S-2519 and the House-passed National Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (HR-3696). The House is also expected to consider the Senate-passed Border Patrol Agent Pay Reform Act (S-1691), which includes language from the DHS Cybersecurity Workforce Recruitment and Retention Act (S-2354), the lobbyist said. The Senate passed S-2354 in September (see 1411070037).