The Iowa Utilities Board OK'd a contract for state telecom relay services and captioned telephone relay service to Hamilton Relay, the IUB said in a news release Wednesday. The contract is for Jan. 1, 2017, to Dec. 31, 2019, and may be extended for three years, it said. The board didn't say how much the contract is worth.

Governors are more aware of cybersecurity, but state chief information security officers (CISOs) still lack funding, said a report Tuesday by Deloitte and the National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO). More than 60 percent of state officials said cybersecurity is discussed at least quarterly at executive leadership meetings, compared with 48 percent in 2014. Nearly one-third of CISOs provided governors with monthly cybersecurity reports this year, up from 17 percent two years ago. There’s little funding: more than half of state cybersecurity budgets represent 0-2 percent of overall technology budgets, the report said. Four in five respondents said inadequate funding is a top barrier to effectively addressing cyberthreats, and 51 percent pointed to the lack of cybersecurity professionals. CISOs said they considered threats targeting employees -- phishing, pharming, social engineering and ransomware -- the most prevalent threat in the year ahead. The report found a “confidence gap” between CISOs and state officials on how prepared their states are to handle security threats: about two in three state officials said they’re very confident about defending against external cyberthreats, but 27 percent of CISOs felt that way. Deloitte and NASCIO received responses this year from CISOs in 49 states and territories, and 96 state business and elected officials. A NASCIO report released Monday said most states outsource at least some IT infrastructure (see 1609190022).

More than two-thirds of states outsource at least some IT infrastructure, up from 58 percent in 2015, the National Association of State Chief Information Officers reported Monday. Also, 63 percent use a managed services model for some or all IT operations, up from 55 percent a year ago, NASCIO said. Four out of five states outsource at least some IT applications and services, little changed from 2015 but up from 42 percent in 2010. About three in four use a shared services model to provide IT services, up from 66 percent in 2010. Only 31 percent of states still own and operate all IT assets and operations, mostly unchanged since 2010. State CIOs said they plan to continue reducing state-owned-and-operated data centers and increasing outsourcing in the future. But one in five CIOs expected to bring certain outsourced operations back in house, NASCIO said: “This may reflect lessons learned from a first generation of outsourcing contracts and reflect a better appreciation of what types of services are a better fit for outsourcing.” Fifty-eight percent said they considered data governance and management to be a key part of strategic and operational plans, and 46 percent have data governance policies, a big increase from 5 percent with policies in 2015. NASCIO worked with CompTIA and Grant Thornton LLP on the report, surveying state CIOs between June and July. NASCIO said 50 member states and territories responded.

The Vermont Department of Public Service sought more time to testify on service quality reporting rules for FairPoint Communications. The Public Service Board is considering adjusting reporting rules, and the company said it needs to report service quality only in locations with no voice competition (see 1608080030). The board is considering a Sept. 16 request by DPS to file testimony Sept. 27, and allow FairPoint to serve discovery Oct. 7, a board spokeswoman emailed Monday. “The Department requests this extension because FairPoint advised the Department that FairPoint intends to file a supplement to its response to the Department's initial round discovery requests on September 16,” DPS said in its motion. The extra time will allow DPS to review the information, it said. Maine, which recently passed a law deregulating FairPoint, also is looking at the telco's service quality reporting (see 1609130057).

The FCC received an update on state broadband initiatives from state members of the Federal State Joint Conference on Advanced Services, said a NARUC ex parte filing Friday. State Chairman Gregg Sayre of New York submitted a May survey in docket 16-245 on the status of state programs to promote broadband deployment.

FCC policy doesn't control “all uses, nationally, of disaggregated telecommunications subscription data,” the California Public Utilities Commission told U.S. District Court in San Francisco. AT&T, Comcast, CTIA, Verizon and other industry plaintiffs want to stop the CPUC from enforcing a May 3 ruling compelling ISPs to disclose subscriber data to The Utility Reform Network (TURN) or other third parties as part of a state investigation of market competition. In May, the court issued a preliminary injunction against the CPUC (see 1605240014). NARUC said a permanent injunction could disrupt the authority of state commissions, and likely would be appealed (see 1607290037). In testimony last month, the ISPs said the CPUC can't work around FCC disclosure regulations by asking providers rather than the FCC for the data. But in a reply (in Pacer) Thursday, the commission said there’s "no functional or substantive difference" between subscription data collected and shared with CPUC consultants under the state's Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act and the subscription data at issue in this case. Federal statute provides an equal role to states in deployment, adoption and promotion of competition for advanced telecom services, it said. TURN supported the CPUC, in a separate reply (in Pacer). State agencies shouldn't need to ask a federal agency's permission to use state-collected data that was also provided to the federal agency, TURN said. "This would be an unworkable result that would thwart both the CPUC’s efforts to carry out its statutory duties under state and federal law and TURN’s ability to meaningfully participate in proceedings before the CPUC." The court plans to hear the case Sept. 29, emailed CPUC attorney Chris Witteman.

Cities may consider aesthetics when assessing telco pole attachment applications, a state appeals court said. In a published opinion Thursday, the California Court of Appeal for the First District rejected a challenge by T-Mobile, Crown Castle and ExteNet Systems to a San Francisco ordinance meant to stop installation of telecom equipment that would diminish the city's beauty. The telecom companies said state law pre-empts the ordinance, but the appeals court disagreed. The companies are mistaken that local government has no authority to regulate installations unless specifically authorized by statute, the court said. Local governments can't bar telcos from installing equipment in public right of way, nor may they charge franchise fees, the court said. "But section 7901 does not grant telephone corporations unlimited rights to install their equipment within the right-of-way." The state statute allows companies to install equipment so long as it doesn't "incommode the public use of the road or highway or interrupt the navigation of the waters," but the companies and the city differed on how to define “incommode.” Telcos interpret it to mean only physical obstruction of travel, while the city said the dictionary definition is broader and includes discomfort and disturbance beyond blockage. The court agreed with a definition by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2009 case, Sprint v. City of Palos Verdes, which found no conflict between California law and a city’s consideration of aesthetics. The 9th Circuit defined “incommode” as “to unreasonably subject the public use to inconvenience or discomfort; to unreasonably trouble, annoy, molest, embarrass, inconvenience; to unreasonably hinder, impede, or obstruct the public use.” The telecom companies and the city didn’t comment. The FCC is mulling rules to ease small-cell siting and the wireless industry is asking states to streamline siting rules (see 1609080074).

The California Public Utilities Commission agreed to reduce the phone bill surcharge rate for the state low-income fund to 4.75 percent from 5.5 percent, effective Nov. 1. At a meeting Thursday, commissioner unanimously approved that and several other telecom items on its consent agenda. The new rate for California LifeLine “strikes a good balance between sufficient revenues to meet anticipated growth in participation and maintain a positive program fund balance,” CPUC said in a draft of the order. The surcharge applies to all telecom carriers and interconnected VoIP providers. As of June 30, more than 2.1 million customers were enrolled in LifeLine, the CPUC said. The previous surcharge was in effect since Oct. 1, and was meant “to increase program fund reserves and meet increased program growth from wireless customers,” it said. Communications Division (CD) "analysis shows that current CA LifeLine surcharge may be reduced to 4.75% due to adequate fund reserves, even though CD expects an increase in program participation during the second half of FY 2016-17.” The CPUC noted a declining billing base for the fund, a trend seen in other state USF funds (see 1607010010), due to fewer landlines, dropping prices and an increasing number of wireless carriers reporting intrastate revenue using the FCC safe harbor formula. Also at the meeting, CPUC agreed to an AT&T Mobility motion to dismiss a complaint against the telco by O1 Communications. O1 sought an order prohibiting AT&T from disconnecting direct connections between their networks. But the commission found the complaint procedurally defective because it failed to state a cause of action for which relief could be granted. “Nothing in California or federal law or Commission orders requires AT&T Mobility Wireless to directly interconnect with O1 Communications network,” CPUC said in the proposed decision. Also, the commission granted a certificate allowing eNetworks to provide full facilities-based and resold competitive local exchange service throughout territories of AT&T, Frontier Communications, Consolidated Communications and Citizens Telecommunications, and full facilities-based and resold interchange services statewide. And it granted a certificate to Mobilitie Management to provide resold and limited facilities-based competitive local exchange telecom services.

Google Fiber's expansion in North Carolina may show the internet company isn't exiting the ISP business, as some speculate, Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said in a research note Tuesday night. Google Fiber tweeted Tuesday that its service is coming to Morrisville and the state’s Triangle region, which includes Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham and Cary. Recent reports that Google has frozen expansion while considering wireless technologies (see 1609070026) may be more of a “course correction” than abandonment of the company’s fiber strategy, Fritzsche said. Google may use wireless for the last mile, she wrote. “But even if wireless is used for this last 200 feet or so, this essentially means that the fiber to the base station -- from which the wireless signal is carried -- needs to be that much more durable/robust. Put another way, fiber should still be very much part of the Google Fiber plan -- even with a wireless solution at the last mile.” Google didn’t comment Wednesday.

It’s impossible to narrow the scope of a Texas right-of-way dispute between Houston and ExteNet Systems to distributed antenna systems (DAS), an ExteNet attorney said in testimony Tuesday in Texas Public Utility Commission case 45280. The matter concerns a complaint by ExteNet, a DAS provider, against Houston for imposing public right-of-way fees. Responding to Comcast concerns about possible consequences of the case for the wider industry, PUC staff suggested limiting the scope of the case to whether Chapter 283, a local code for franchise fees, applied to DAS (see 1608310023). But the ExteNet attorney, Joseph Gillan, said the PUC won’t be able to narrow its decision, "The dispute hinges on whether the Commission will interpret the term 'backhaul' in the manner Houston asks -- a decision that would exclude from the Chapter 283 framework all backhaul, not just DAS," he said. "It is the threshold eligibility of backhaul under Chapter 283 that Houston is challenging, not whether DAS providers (a term and concept not even defined in the proceeding) should be treated differently than other backhaul providers." If the commission wants to revisit the rule, it should hold a separate rulemaking, Gillan said. “But for the purpose of this Complaint, the Commission must apply its rule as written and commonly defined, and not redefine ‘backhaul’ so as to expel from Chapter 283 the backhaul facilities of every provider in Texas.” In separate testimony, a Houston official said ExteNet must have a right-of-way use agreement with the city before installing fiber where it’s proposed. Houston hosts the Super Bowl in four months, understands small-cell technology will be important to creating a positive experience there, "and has been active in facilitating its deployment in the City," said Juan Olguin, an assistant director in the Houston Administration and Regulatory Affairs Department. The city has a master license agreement “that sets out the rights and responsibilities of wireless service providers, their contractors, and wireless infrastructure companies that want to install facilities in the rights-of-way," he said. "As a result of our successful collaboration, small cell/DAS providers are able to install and profit from their facilities in the rights-of-way, the City protects the rights-of-way for the public's use, and the community has the opportunity to provide input about small cell/DAS facilities in their neighborhoods all ultimately benefitting from its deployment.”