AT&T said it invested $1.6 billion on wireless and wireline network upgrades in Ohio between 2012 and 2014, and spent the same amount on network upgrades in New Jersey during that period. The Ohio upgrades included launching service for former Alltel customers in 22 counties and installing a distributed antenna system at Ohio State University’s Ohio Stadium, the company said Tuesday. The telco and wireless carrier also added LTE service in 24 Ohio municipalities in 2014. AT&T said in separate news releases that between 2012 and 2014, it spent $950 million on upgrades in Virginia, $875 million in South Florida, almost $550 million in Maryland and almost $300 million in West Virginia.

CEA looks forward “to continuing to work” with the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Department of Energy, “as they look for additional energy-saving opportunities in IT products and equipment," Doug Johnson, vice president-technology policy, said in an emailed statement Thursday on the CEC’s proposed new energy-efficiency standards for computers and monitors. Private-sector "innovation" and the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program “are the key drivers of energy efficiency for computers and monitors, as evidenced by their low levels of energy consumption today,” Johnson said, reflecting longstanding CEA policy favoring energy efficiency improvements in tech products through private-sector initiatives rather than regulation. Energy Star was hatched as a public-private program decades ago by certifying computers “and has achieved tremendous success in the decades since,” he said. Recent CEA studies have found the average desktop computer uses 43 cents’ worth of energy in a week, and that the average annual energy consumption for a monitor is 54 percent lower than it was in 2010, Johnson said. “Even though there are more consumer electronics in U.S. homes than ever, those devices now account for a lower percentage of electricity usage per household." The Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union, in a joint statement Thursday, had a different take. CFA and CU cited a 2014 CFA analysis that found that between 2000 and 2013, “the amount of electricity gobbled up by computers, game consoles and network connectivity devices increased more than five-fold in the U.S., reaching an average of 800 kWh per year per household.” CFA and CU hail the proposed CEC standards as “strong and reasonable” and fair to manufacturers as they afford them “considerable flexibility” in compliance, “thereby stimulating competition to meet the standards” in the least costly ways, they said. The proposed CEC rules would take effect in 2018 for desktop computers and 2017 for small servers, work stations and notebook computers. “Few industries have worked to make more dramatic improvements in their return on energy investment than the technology sector, and estimates are that computers have attained over a 266 billion percent improvement since the 1960s," Chris Hankin, Information Technology Industry Council senior director-environment and sustainability, emailed us Friday. That finding was from a 2011 American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy report that measured energy use improvements for the five decades through 2010, Hankin said. The proposed CEC standards “would reduce the average energy use for a typical computer, monitor and display, without affecting the functionality or performance, using available, off-the-shelf technologies,” said a final-draft CEC staff report, posted Thursday on the commission’s website. The proposed standards statewide would save more than 585 gigawatt-hours per year statewide in energy use of computer monitors and displays and 2,117 GWh per year in computers, “after the inefficient existing stock is replaced,” the report said. It estimates the greenhouse gas reductions that would result would equal 634,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year for computers, and 183,000 metric tons of CO2 yearly for monitors and displays, the report said. In terms of monetary savings, the proposed rules would save Californians $434 million a year in electricity bills, $340 million of that through more energy-efficient computers, it said. The proposed rules set performance standards for computers “that are not prescriptive and allow the industry flexibility to choose how to comply,” the report said. “The energy savings are achievable through a combination of hardware and/or software improvements. Computer manufacturers can choose components that use less energy and are cost-effective to consumers. Software enhancements can be implemented at low costs and can reduce wasteful energy consumption by implementing hardware idle modes that already exist.” CEC plans a “staff workshop” on the proposed rules for April 15, 10 a.m., at commission headquarters in Sacramento, said a public notice posted Thursday on the CEC website. The workshop will be webcast, and will "provide industry, stakeholders, and the public an opportunity to seek clarifications on the staff report analyses and to make comments” on the proposed rules, the notice said. Written comments on the proposed rules are due May 15 at 4 p.m. PDT in docket 14-AAER-2, the notice said. Anyone wanting to make a scripted presentation at the workshop must submit the presentation by April 13 and may not exceed 10 minutes, it said.

The FCC is going to “rue the day” it chose to exercise its Telecom Act Section 706 authority in the way described in its municipal broadband pre-emption order, NetCompetition Chairman Scott Cleland said Friday during a Broadband US webcast. The agency relied heavily on Section 706 in the order it released Thursday granting petitions from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina, to pre-empt North Carolina and Tennessee state laws that contain restrictions on municipal broadband deployments (see 1503120060). The commission interpretation of Section 706 relies too heavily on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s reading of the statute in its Verizon v. FCC ruling, Cleland said, calling the interpretation a grant of “balsa wood authority.” Cleland and other industry observers who spoke during the webcast said the order is likely to face legal challenges, with Cleland saying it is destined to end up before the Supreme Court. Baller Herbst lawyer Jim Baller, who represented EPB and Wilson in the FCC petitions, disputed claims that the order explicitly states that the commission doesn’t have authority to pre-empt state laws that institute a flat ban on municipal broadband deployments. CenturyLink Vice President-Federal Regulatory Affairs Jeff Lanning said the order acknowledges that distinction. The FCC is “making it very clear” that it will rule against any petition that seeks pre-emption of a flat ban, Lanning said.

The California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) and its partners called on Comcast Thursday to pledge to meet requirements in the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) proposed decision on the Comcast/Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal that would require Comcast to reach 45 percent of all eligible low-income residents in its post-merger territory in the state with its low-cost Internet Essentials broadband program. The CPUC wants to require Comcast to spend $275 per household on outreach, digital literacy training and assistance in enrolling in Internet Essentials. Comcast has said those requirements are unrealistic, while CETF said it believes those requirements are doable. “CETF and our partners call on Comcast to join an effective public-private partnership to close the Digital Divide in California, and we stand ready to work with Comcast and all interested community-based organizations,” CETF President Sunne McPeak said in a statement. “There is no substitute for the innovation and efficiency of the private sector when engaged as sincere partners motivated to achieve explicit goals. Effective public-private partnerships can significantly leverage public benefit resources for a higher return on investment to taxpayers and ratepayers.” A Comcast spokeswoman said the company "is proud of our network of thousands" of community participants in building the Internet Essentials program. "We welcome CETF's continued participation in our program, but if they prefer a different program, they are certainly free to create their own program independent of Internet Essentials and join our fight to connect low income Californians to the Internet," the Comcast spokeswoamn said. The CPUC is currently set to vote on the proposed Comcast/TWC decision March 26.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) “plans to sign” HB-389, which would ban drivers in the state from writing, sending or reading messages on a mobile device while behind the wheel, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. The state Senate voted 49-3 Monday to approve the bill, which would institute a $25 fine for offenses committed through July 1, 2016. The fine would rise to $100 per offense after that date. The state has a ban on texting for drivers under the age of 18 but is otherwise one of six states that don't have blanket bans on the practice.

Three additional neighborhoods in Ridgeland, Mississippi, exceeded C Spire registration requirements for deploying residential gigabit service, the company said Friday. The city’s Montrachet, Muirwood and Camden Park neighborhoods now qualify for gigabit service, joining the already qualified Bridgewater, Old Agency East, Highland Colony North, Birdlanes and Ann Smith neighborhoods, C Spire said. The company first activated gigabit service in Ridgeland in November (see 1411130046).

The Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation said Sunday it supports a legislative push by state House Assistant Majority Leader Kevin Brooks and state Sen. Janice Bowling to ease restrictions in the state’s municipal broadband law by allowing municipalities operating an electric utility to provide utility services, including broadband, outside their electric system service area. The group said its members are located primarily in rural areas of Tennessee that have sparse broadband connectivity. Brooks said he and Bowling, both Republicans, are hoping the FCC Feb. 26 vote to grant a pre-emption petition from the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga will help the chances of their bills -- HB-1303 and SB-1134 -- during the current legislative session (see 1502270048). The legislature is slated to adjourn April 17.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear’s office confirmed he hadn’t signed HB-152 by our deadline Friday but said he intends to do so. The bill, which would significantly reduce the Kentucky Public Service Commission’s authority to regulate wireline service and would end its oversight of consumers’ broadband and wireless complaints, passed the state Senate 30-3 March 2. The House approved the bill Feb. 24 on a 71-25 vote (see 1502250022). Beshear, a Democrat, already had indicated he'll sign the bill, which also would allow major telcos to end traditional wireline service in jurisdictions with more than 15,000 households provided the FCC clears the conversion to an all-wireless or VoIP replacement. The PSC would retain full jurisdiction over wholesale issues, carrier-to-carrier issues and anti-competitive telecom practices.

The Johnston County, North Carolina, 911 Emergency Communications department said it successfully tested an Intrado-developed LTE backup 911 call routing option to connect callers with the county’s public safety answering points (PSAPs). The 911 call routing alternative provides additional reliability to Johnston County’s 911 system, including its recently deployed Next-Generation 911 network capabilities, the department said Wednesday. “The traditional weak link in terrestrial networks is the 'last mile' between the telephone company and our PSAPs,” said department Director Jason Barbour in a news release. “This solution gives us yet another path to receive those calls in the unlikely event that both our primary and backup routes are unavailable.”

Media Alliance urged opponents of the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable (TWC) deal to speak against the merger during the California Public Utilities Commission’s March 12 meeting. The meeting is the last open CPUC session before the commission’s planned March 26 vote on its review of the deal. Media Alliance Executive Director Tracy Rosenberg was one of several public interest advocates who urged the CPUC to reject the deal during an all-party meeting Feb. 25 (see 1502260060). Several community representatives spoke in favor of Comcast/TWC during a public comment period before parties in the review presented their arguments, which Media Alliance said Tuesday was a Comcast-orchestrated demonstration. “We must turn around the parade of Comcast-funded cheerleaders and make sure the Commission hears from real people not on Comcast's payroll,” Media Alliance said.