FirstNet recognizes the support of the public safety community is needed to make the network work, said FirstNet Director-Government Affairs Edward Parkinson in a FirstNet blog post (http://bit.ly/1tbeUlH) Tuesday. Parkinson said he told the Minnesota Public Safety Interoperable Communications Conference that “planning and partnering will be especially critical for Minnesota, which has a number of coverage factors to consider given the state’s geography is a mix of rural, urban, and wilderness terrain. Minnesota also shares a border with Canada, which is another important consideration for emergency communications planning purposes."

Frontier’s purchase of AT&T’s wireline assets in Connecticut (CD Feb 24 p21) would “generate significant, tangible and timely benefits for end users,” Frontier told the FCC in a filing Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1m8ceDv). Responding to several questions raised by FCC staff April 1, Frontier said it emphasizes customer service and network quality in all of its territories, but would have “laser-like focus on providing outstanding service” in its home state of Connecticut. Frontier said it would improve service beyond what AT&T had been able to offer by locating a dispatch operation in Connecticut, adding jobs to the state and being able to “address service and operational issues in a timely manner,” the filing said. Frontier also said it would expand broadband beyond AT&T’s investment level trends.

South Dakota’s PUC lowered the tax rate on in-state gross receipts of utilities and telecommunications companies (http://1.usa.gov/1md1p0L) Tuesday. The levy for fiscal year 2015, beginning July 1, will be 0.14 percent, down from the 0.15 percent maximum allowed by state law. “I'm pretty excited we can decrease a tax rate,” said Commissioner Chris Nelson, at the PUC meeting. Nelson noted the rate had been at 0.15 for a number of years. The rate is capped at what’s needed to fund PUC operations for two years. The rates were able to be lowered because the PUC has managed costs, and there have been an increase in requests to raise electric rates, Nelson said in an interview, noting that the cost of considering the rate cases are charged to the requesting utilities.

The possible inclusion of wireless carriers in the FCC’s definition of unsubsidized competitors would contradict the public interest, the Alaska Rural Coalition told aides to FCC commissioners April 8 and April 9, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1qWQfNE) posted by the FCC Monday. ARC members said during the meetings that wireless carriers do not have the same regulatory obligations as wireline carriers, “and can therefore cherry-pick the most profitable areas to serve, leaving less densely populated areas out in the cold,” the filing said. A carrier should only be considered unsubsidized “if it receives no support from any federal programs,” including E-rate and Rural Health, the ARC members said. Discussing broadband expansion, the ARC members also said rural carriers are precluded from participation in mobility auctions because of the commission’s requirement that bidders obtain irrevocable letters of credit, which are unavailable from the Rural Utilities Service, the primary lender to small rural carriers, the filing said.

The Anchorage School District (ASD) agreed to a technology plan with Alaska Communications, said a company news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1hwy6qp). Alaska Communications will provide “enhanced broadband services, including faster broadband speeds and a private wireless network, to the district’s more than 100 locations to meet ASD’s growing technology and educational needs,” the company said. The deal includes faster broadband speeds to all schools in the district, with 95 to be served by fiber by early 2015.

AT&T said it’s “in advanced discussions” with the North Carolina Next Generation Network (NCNGN) to bring AT&T U-verse with GigaPower Internet service to North Carolina’s Triangle and Piedmont Triad regions. NCNGN is a regional initiative to encourage next-generation network deployment in North Carolina. AT&T is proposing to deploy U-verse fiber in Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh and Winston-Salem. Those areas have sufficient demand for U-verse’s 1 Gbps speeds and local policies that “support broadband network investment,” AT&T said Thursday. The plan would include options for public Wi-Fi hotspots, free U-verse with GigaPower service at up to 100 public sites and fiber connections to up to 100 business buildings, AT&T said. The telco would make free 3 Mbps U-verse High Speed Internet service available at 10 affordable housing complexes for a total of 3,000 homes. The local governments in the six cities will need to ratify the agreement. Venessa Harrison, AT&T-North Carolina president, said in a news release that the telco is “encouraged” by its conversations with NCNGN and believes the negotiations show “how dedicated its policymakers and university and business leaders are to bringing the latest technology to the state.” NCNGN participants “are encouraged by AT&T’s interest to deliver ultra-fast bandwidth to the Research Triangle and Piedmont regions,” said NCNGN Steering Committee Chair Tracy Futhey in the AT&T news release (http://soc.att.com/1kNqsFS).

A proposed one-time $25 million appropriation for a rural broadband grant program was approved by the Minnesota Senate Tuesday, after being passed by the House last week (CD April 8 p19). The grants, part of a $322 million two-year budget bill, House File-3172 (http://bit.ly/1lFHRBC), would be available to some areas that don’t have access to download speeds of at least 4 Mbps.

Wireless voice and data service will be coming to as many as 242 underground New York City subway stations, said AT&T and Transit Wireless in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1n4Txhn). AT&T service is currently available in 30 stations in midtown Manhattan from Phase 1 of the project, plus six from the initial build in Chelsea. AT&T is installing equipment in Transit Wireless’s secure base station hotel facilities to bring 3G and 4G LTE service to Phase 2, which comprises 40 stations -- 11 in midtown Manhattan. The entire Phase 2 buildout is expected to be completed by summer, said AT&T and Transit Wireless.

A proposed one-time $25 million appropriation for a rural broadband grant program is headed for a Minnesota Senate vote Tuesday, after being approved by the House Thursday, a House news release said Friday (http://bit.ly/1k6bCyk). The grants, part of a $322 million two-year budget bill, House File-3172 (http://bit.ly/1lFHRBC), would be available to unserved areas that don’t have access to download speeds of 4 Mbps. They would also be available for underserved areas without download speeds of 10 to 20 Mbps. “Broadband is the future of Minnesota,” said Rep. Erik Simonson, of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party: “Minnesota lags behind in technology. Good broadband is a need and it’s frustrating to people when they don’t have the tools that they need."

E-rate should be improved and modernized by increasing bandwidth goals and streamlining the application process, the National Association of Counties said in comments (http://bit.ly/1st2EfU) filed with the FCC Monday in Docket 13-184. NACo also suggested focusing funding on broadband by phasing out funding for non-broadband services like paging and voice mail, and strengthening the buying power of communities to buy bandwidth by providing more options. “The E-Rate program has been an instrumental tool for our schools and libraries. ... Unfortunately, the typical K-12 public school has about the same Internet access speed as the average home -- with 200 times more users. It means that 40 million students are being left behind without the speeds they need to take full advantage of digital learning opportunities,” the comments said.