The Public Utility Commission of Texas established a procedural schedule for processing Verizon’s petition to deregulate 10 markets with populations below 100,000. Intervenor comments must be filed by Friday; staff has until Oct. 2 to request a hearing or issue a recommendation; Verizon has until Oct. 9 to request a hearing, respond to comments and staff recommendations, or file a proposed order. The PUC must decide the case by Nov. 19.

California's Department of Justice and its Public Utilities Commission reached a $33 million settlement with Comcast over allegations Comcast posted online the names, phone numbers and addresses of tens of thousands of customers who had paid for unlisted Voice over Internet Protocol phone service, said a Thursday news release from the California attorney general's office. In the settlement, Comcast must pay $25 million in penalties and investigative costs to the state DOJ and CPUC, it said. The company will also pay about $8 million in additional restitution to customers whose numbers were improperly disclosed, it said. Comcast also agreed to a permanent injunction requiring the company to improve how it handles customer complaints and to strengthen the restrictions it places on its vendors’ use of personal information about customers, the AG's office said. The injunction will require Comcast to provide a simple and easy-to-read disclosure form to all customers that explains the ways in which it uses unlisted phone numbers and other personal information, it said. Comcast is in the process of refunding all fees paid for unlisted service by the roughly 75,000 customers whose information was improperly disclosed over a two-year period, which total more than $2 million. Under the settlement, Comcast will pay each of these customers $100 on top of the refund, totaling an additional $7.5 million, the AG's office said. The settlement also provides for further monetary relief to those with personal safety concerns related to the disclosure of their information, such as law enforcement personnel and victims of domestic violence, it said. The matter was "operationally resolved nearly three years ago," a Comcast spokeswoman said. Despite that, the company is happy to bring it to a close, she said. "It has always been our goal to find a solution that works for all parties and for the customers who were impacted by this error."

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission’s “flawed interpretation” of 2014 telecom legislation resulted in inequitable treatment of new market entrants in wholesale communications services, effectively blocking competitive broadband deployment, said PCIA in comments it publicized Friday. The main issues involve eligibility and validity of certificates of public convenience (CPCN) and necessity and letters of registration (LOR) for recently deregulated services, PCIA said. CPCNs and LORs ensure that communications providers can access poles at fair rates, promoting competitive broadband deployment, it said. Without an outward and obvious indication of authorization, many communications providers find that pole owners are unwilling to negotiate, which creates a barrier to entry and impedes deployment of broadband and its services, PCIA said. It urged the PUC to recognize these providers and remedy any potential market harm. CenturyLink also filed reply comments in the docket, saying the commission should initiate a rulemaking to consider some process so competitors can appropriately document and prove status to other providers and governments. The Colorado Telecommunications Association said the path forward is clear, and the commission should allow, but not require, voluntary registration by new carriers interested in obtaining commission certification before entering the Colorado market to provide deregulated telecom services or products.

It's surprising that Minnesota has never been challenged over its public utilities commission's authority over interconnected VoIP services before the Charter Communications case (see 1508210040), said PUC Commissioner John Tuma at an FCBA lunch Friday. The state Department of Commerce could have brought the issue up previously, but it chose to do so because, among other reasons, it wasn't collecting as much in fees, which made the department stand up and take notice, Tuma said. The commission could have turned the issue into a rulemaking opportunity, but Tuma said it believes the law is clear and there wasn't a need for more rulemaking. The issue is ongoing, but the PUC believes that "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, has a dial tone like a duck, it's a duck," he said. The commission didn't necessarily push in the direction that the Minnesota Department of Commerce would have liked, Tuma said, but it focused "very carefully" on the preemption issue, he said. He anticipates the decision will be appealed by Charter. The major issues the commission had with Charter's transfer of services to this interconnected VoIP service is that it transferred customers to an entity that doesn't have the certificate to run a phone service in the state with no notice and that the company is no longer paying Telecommunications Access Minnesota (TAM) and Telephone Assistance Program (TAP) fees, the commissioner said. Charter did continue to provide 911 services, he said. There has been no talk of a fine being imposed on Charter, mainly because to do that in Minnesota requires the attorney general to get involved and take it to court, Tuma said. So the commission basically wants to know how Charter planned to pay the state's TAM and TAP fees for the new service, Tuma said.

IRis Networks and NGN established a fiber ethernet interconnection to strengthen broadband availability between Nashville, Knoxville and Cleveland, Tennessee, and Atlanta and north Georgia, said a news release from NGN. The interconnection of networks will give the region's business community access to broadband connectivity services from 1 Mbps to 100 Gbps, it said. The network will provide more opportunity for national providers, wireless and wireline, to use rural fiber networks to deliver services, it said Wednesday.

Alaska's General Communication launched the state's only 1 Gbps Internet service in Anchorage, called 1 GIG red, said a news release from the company. GCI is also upgrading all other red Internet markets in Alaska to speeds up to 500 Mbps, from the current red speeds of up to 250 Mbps, previously the fastest Internet service available in Alaska, it said. GCI plans to expand the network in the coming year, said the cable ISP Wednesday.

AT&T committed to extend broadband to more than 81,000 rural homes and businesses in Tennessee as a part of the FCC Connect America Fund (CAF) over the next six years, a company news release said. The deployment will deliver broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps/1 Mbps. AT&T Tennessee said it will receive more than $26 million annually over the next six years to help meet its commitment in the state. Other carriers in Tennessee also have committed to expand rural broadband through the CAF program, for a combined total of more than $29 million annually for each of the next six years, it said.

AT&T repaired fiber that was vandalized in the Livermore, California, area Monday, and caused some customers to have trouble with their wireline and wireless services, a spokesman said. Crews completed the repairs Tuesday, he said. This incident is one of many recent vandalism attacks in Northern California (see 1509040044). AT&T is offering a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for fiber vandalism in Alameda County, California, the spokesman said.

CenturyLink is increasing its fiber footprint by expanding its gigabit network to residential and small business customers in parts of six more states -- Arizona, Idaho, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina and South Dakota -- the telco said in a news release. CenturyLink now offers gigabit Internet service to residential and small business customers in parts of 17 states and, by the end of 2015, should have more than 700,000 households enabled with fiber-to-the-home technology capable of uploading and downloading information at speeds up to 1 Gbps, it said.

Garrett County, Maryland, and Declaration Networks Group (DNG) signed a long-term agreement establishing funding for deployment of a broadband network infrastructure to deliver high-speed Internet services to more than 3,000 unserved or underserved homes and businesses, a DNG news release said. The initiative was jointly developed by Garrett County and the Appalachian Regional Commission, which both committed grant funding to the project, the release said. DNG was selected as the private industry partner by the county through a competitive bid process, it said. DNG will begin its network deployment later this year, the release said.