Verizon New Jersey hailed a New Jersey Board...

Verizon New Jersey hailed a New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) decision authorizing a stipulation agreement (http://bit.ly/1nrHT3b) that critics (http://bit.ly/ROz1bh) say eases a requirement on the company to provide high-speed Internet in all areas of the state. The agreement stems from a BPU March 2012 order that Verizon show it had complied with a 1993 agreement, in which the board excused the telco from traditional rate base regulation in return for accelerating its broadband development in the state. Verizon’s 2012 response said it had complied because the 1993 agreement didn’t call for specific targets, and that firm has invested $13 billion over the last 20 years in New Jersey to expand broadband. The stipulation agreement approved Wednesday resolves the case. Verizon agreed to provide broadband to at least 35 residential or business customers per census tract who lack access to either cable broadband or 4G-based wireless services. The company is able to provide the broadband through wireless, instead of fiber. Critics said the state hasn’t enforced the 1993 agreement to implement the Opportunity New Jersey (ONJ) plan to wire the state, and now the communities that never got service will get slower wireless instead. “The state has basically failed to uphold the law for 20 years and now they're erasing it,” said Bruce Kushnick, executive director of the New Networks Institute, which has been critical of the stipulation agreement. The BPU decision “is great news for the state’s consumers and builds upon the success of Opportunity New Jersey,” Verizon New Jersey said in a statement. “It brings certainty to the state’s broadband market, giving Verizon New Jersey customers a request process to bring broadband to unserved communities. ... Verizon’s network investments in New Jersey have made it one of the country’s most wired states in terms of broadband infrastructure, far exceeding what was contemplated by ONJ, and we are eager to move forward and work with communities to deliver the benefits of broadband to them through this process.”