Neb. PSC Expands Windstream 911 Probe, Starts Precision Agriculture Grants

January 24, 2024 by Adam Bender|State Telecom

Nebraska will expand a Windstream 911 probe to include a January outage and outages occurring while docket 911-076 is open, the Nebraska Public Service Commission decided 5-0 Tuesday. “The Commission is concerned with what appears to be a growing pattern of repeated 911 outages on Windstream’s network affecting southeast Nebraska” public safety answering points, said the PSC order, which noted that three outages occurred during a five-month period. Also, commissioners unanimously supported a precision agriculture order setting a process for states grants (docket C-5529). The PSC will make more than $906,000 available for the 2023-2024 fiscal year starting July 1, with half the money for connectivity and the rest for devices and technology, it said. The PSC will run annual grant cycles with awards on or before June 30 each year, the order said. For the 2024 cycle, applications are due Feb. 23 and awards will be released by April 30, it said. "The grant program is another opportunity to advance precision agriculture in our state with much-needed connectivity and supporting technology,” said Nebraska PSC Chair Dan Watermeier. “We look forward to seeing the innovative projects submitted through the application process.” Also, the commission voted 5-0 for a TRS order to open docket C-5555 and hold a hearing March 19 at 1:30 p.m. CDT to determine the surcharge for the fiscal year starting July 1. Windstream experienced a 52-minute evening outage Jan. 13 in southeast Nebraska due to "two unrelated but overlapping network events," a spokesperson wrote in an email. "First, there was a fiber cut between Lincoln and Denver that took down one of our two network paths into and out of Nebraska." That damage didn't cause an outage, but before the telco could repair it, an unrelated event between Lincoln and Chicago "took down our second network path into and out of the state," the spokesperson said. "Service [was] restored when the fiber cut on the Lincoln-Denver path was repaired."