The Idaho Public Utilities Commission asked the FCC for a permanent waiver of rules requiring Idaho to provide a copy of Lifeline subscribers’ certification forms to the eligible telecom carrier, in a petition Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1cqeqw9). “Special circumstances in Idaho warrant a deviation from the rules,” the PUC said. The state contracts with the Community Action Partnership of Idaho to administer its state and the national Lifeline programs, it said. Because of the way the group gathers and stores information on the state’s subscribers, it would require extensive manual labor to comply with the FCC rules, the PUC said, noting Idaho already has “sufficient safeguards in place to protect against waste, fraud and abuse."

New York state schools will need higher-speed broadband, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared Wednesday in his State of the State address, outlining an initiative to improve school district technology. Cuomo, a Democrat, judged “the best long-term economic development strategy” to be education. “We are in the midst of an education reinvention. ... We must transform our classrooms from the classrooms of yesterday to the classrooms of tomorrow.” He outlined a plan in which each district must submit a technology plan to the state and can receive funds, pending approval of a bond referendum. Cuomo released a long document pegged to his speech describing this $2-billion “Smart Schools” bond referendum (http://bit.ly/1ii7yGs). “If approved by the voters, the ‘Smart Schools’ bond referendum will enable schools to go wireless; educate students using interactive tablets instead of outdated textbooks and worksheets; make it possible for teachers to connect with one another to share strategies and lesson plans; offer high-level courses such as Advanced Placement through blended online/classroom learning; replace chalkboards with 79 new interactive whiteboards; and provide access to other technology to improve student achievement,” the governor’s office said in the document. It described how funds from this initiative would be allocated to every district. “At some schools, there are children on the Internet. At some schools, they don’t even have a basketball net,” Cuomo said during the speech. “Let’s have the smartest classrooms in the nation."

Ping4 partnered with the Florida Division of Emergency Management on a pilot program providing mobile emergency alerts to citizens and visitors in Brevard County, Fla. Ping4’s platform “allows for custom alert polygons to be created and stored providing specifically targeted alerts,” said the company in a news release Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1aiNm5v). The app, Ping4alerts, is a free iOS and Android app “that uses the latest location-based technology to deliver a push notification to mobile devices within a geographically-defined area,” it said. Users aren’t required to provide Ping4 with personally identifiable information, it said.

A $2 million broadband stimulus grant helped the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority deliver wireless to an underserved area, NTIA said in a Tuesday blog post (http://1.usa.gov/1ejLPLs). The authority, funded through the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, helped the Navajo Nation territory in the southwest U.S. “And now the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority is signing up its first customers for a new 4G LTE wireless broadband network funded largely by the federal government,” NTIA said. “Covering 15,000 square miles, the new network consists of 59 wireless towers, 43 base stations, 60 microwave links, 550 miles of fiber and 20 miles of fiber or microwave connections into buildings.” The authority worked with wireless company Commnet, NTIA said.

NARUC said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., will address its Feb. 9-12 winter meeting in Washington. He will speak as part of an 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, general session, joining, as expected, Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark. Alexander in recent months has opposed the use of cellphones to talk on planes. The NARUC session also lists Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., as a speaker.

Minnesota House Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee Chairman Joe Atkins (DFL) will introduce legislation requiring all smartphones sold in the state to have a “kill switch” that would render stolen or lost devices inoperable. “Smartphone theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in Minnesota and across the country, and these crimes are becoming increasingly violent,” Atkins said in a news release (http://bit.ly/192kuzS). “We cannot continue to ignore the availability of existing technology to stop cellphone thieves in their tracks. It is time to act on this growing and violent threat to Minnesotans.” Atkins said the law would be the first of its kind in the U.S., but California and New York lawmakers are considering similar legislation. Atkins plans to introduce the bill Jan. 13, for passage in the 2014 legislative session. Cellphone thefts are on the rise, Atkins said: “A violent attack last week on Minneapolis mayoral candidate Mark Andrew at the Mall of America, in which his smartphone was stolen and he was badly beaten, illustrates how smartphone theft can target anyone, no matter who they are or where they are."

Sprint and the California Cable & Telecommunications Association weighed in on a LifeLine proposal before the California Public Utilities Commission last week. Commissioner Catherine Sandoval had submitted a proposed decision, and the two parties submitted reply comments. Sprint argued the “balanced” proposed decision was fine as-is and applauded the commissioner for creating a proposal “making it possible for wireless service providers to participate in the program” (http://bit.ly/1l7NwAS). It urged the CPUC to reject suggestions from a joint filing of the Greenlining Institute, the National Consumer Law Center and The Utility Reform Network to amend the proposed decision. But the California Cable & Telecommunications Association said the decision “must be revised to allow for voluntary participation of all VoIP all [sic] providers in the LifeLine program, and compliance with the Commission’s LifeLine rules” (http://bit.ly/1izMZrQ).

CompSouth complained about AT&T’s changes to terms and conditions of its special access tariffs in a filing before the Tennessee Regulatory Authority. “CompSouth submits that these 20% to 30% increases in the price of A&T’s special access services are unjust, unreasonable, discriminatory, and anti-competitive and that AT&T’s announced intention to discontinue offering these services to competitive carriers is unreasonable, discriminatory, and anti-competitive,” the group of CLECs said in its filing (http://1.usa.gov/KoOZo4). CompSouth asked the Tennessee regulators to consider the legality of AT&T’s tariff amendments and whether they are necessary for a transition to IP services, as AT&T has contended. “CompSouth’s complaint in Tennessee against AT&T’s anti-competitive proposal to eliminate long-term special access discount plans raises a number of important questions that AT&T must answer,” Karen Reidy, Comptel vice president-regulatory affairs, told us in a statement. “In addition to pointing out the harmful impact of AT&T’s unilateral, unjustified, price increase for these services, which impacts consumers’ ability to obtain competitive robust, innovative and high-quality services, CompSouth effectively challenges AT&T claims that it is not feasible to offer these services after it transitions to IP and calls on AT&T to explain how it will provide alternative wholesale offerings to competitors.” “We continue to meet with our customers in a good-faith effort to address their needs,” an AT&T spokeswoman told us. “As the transition to more robust and efficient Internet-based network and services moves forward, we will remain flexible in attempting to meet their needs."

The Kentucky Public Service Commission reminded western Kentucky customers to begin dialing phone numbers using 10 digits. The area code 364 will be overlaid in regions using the 270 area code, which will make 10-digit dialing mandatory starting Feb. 1, the PSC said in a news release Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1a4c4X8).

A Minnesota state lawmaker accused the state of not doing enough to further high-speed broadband access, and plans a listening tour throughout the state early this month. State Sen. Matt Schmit, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, scheduled his first session with residents for 3 p.m. Monday at the North Branch Regional Library in North Branch, Minn., and continues at stops through Jan. 10, according to a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1bCfpJ9). “There’s been a lot of talk, but very little action,” Schmit said in a statement. “Despite a great deal of philanthropic activity and admirable work by our local providers and co-ops, our statewide infrastructure investments aren’t keeping pace and we're lagging increasingly behind the curve.” The meetings will help set the 2014 legislative agenda on broadband, his office said.