The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) recommended Monday that customers in the existing 740 area code area should begin using 10-digit or 11-digit dialing starting Sept. 20 to make the practice “second nature” when it becomes mandatory March 21 as part of the rollout of the overlapping 220 area code. Carriers are set to begin offering numbers using the 220 area code in the 740 area code area, which includes much of central and southeast Ohio, beginning April 22, PUCO said. The commission said it approved plans for the 220 area code overlay in December amid projections that the 740 area code would run out of available phone numbers in Q2 2015 (http://1.usa.gov/1ufCJcR). PUCO had also explored dividing the 740 area code area in half and requiring customers in half of the area to change phone numbers to one in the 220 area code (CD Nov 7 p15). Current 740 area code telephone numbers will not change with the introduction of the 220 area code overlay, PUCO said.

The U.S. broadband market is “robust in terms of speed, affordability and choice,” and while some municipal broadband projects aim to fill in some gaps in rural areas, the projects have had problems, said a study by the Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute at New York Law School. It was submitted as an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1uGfvuA) in the petitions to pre-empt state laws imposing barriers on municipal broadband projects, posted Friday in FCC dockets 14-115 and 14-116 for the petitions filed by Wilson, North Carolina, and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Overly optimistic projections about costs and take rates doomed some projects, the study said, while moderately successful ones were based on “unique circumstances” that would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible to replicate.” Governments are not well-equipped to compete in dynamic markets, the study said. It said municipal governments “do not have a strong record of keeping pace with technological advances or in shaping policies that reflect rapidly evolving consumer preferences for new services.” The study also said a project “often diverts scarce public resources from more pressing priorities."

The Media Alliance asked the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to grant the group party status in its ongoing review of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal. The Media Alliance said in a filing posted Thursday that it seeks to ensure “the free flow of information throughout California to maximize civic engagement and access to information.” The group said it would address how Comcast/TWC will affect diverse communities in the state and the state’s information sector. The Media Alliance said its participation in CPUC’s review is “crucial to ensuring the needs of users and residents are fully considered and [we] would like to have input into the proceeding” (http://bit.ly/1o7JmIi).

The Connecticut Internet Service Providers Association (CTISPA) urged Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) Friday to require Frontier Communications to offer DSL service to ISP end users in Connecticut who don’t maintain plain old telephone service (POTS) -- known as offering a “dry loop” -- when ISPs buy wholesale DSL transport. The dry loop offering should be a public interest condition in Connecticut’s settlement with Frontier for regulatory approval of its purchase of AT&T’s wireline, broadband and video assets in the state, CTISPA said (http://bit.ly/1nAYGgA). PURA is considering revisions to the settlement after it rejected late last month a settlement version that Frontier reached with state Attorney General George Jepsen and the Office of Consumer Counsel (CD Sept 3 p16). AT&T currently offers dry loops in the state only to its own customers but not to ISP end users, still requiring those users to maintain a POTS line in order to have DSL while using a wholesale DSL transport service, CTISPA said. Elsewhere, AT&T offers dry loops to its own customers and ISP end users, the group said. PURA has jurisdiction to require the dry loop condition because it is a “local voice loop issue” rather than an ISP service issue or DSL provisioning issue, CTISPA said.

C Spire said it reached an agreement with Jackson, Mississippi, to bring its gigabit fiber network to the state’s capital city (http://bit.ly/1lA7nMy). C Spire began selecting cities for its fiber network in November, when it said it would bring the fiber network to Batesville, Clinton, Corinth, Hattiesburg, Horn Lake, McComb, Quitman, Ridgeland and Starkville (CD Nov 5 p13). C Spire’s extension of the network to Jackson “will address so many needs in our city from education and health care to business expansion while improving home values,” said Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber, a Democrat, in a Tuesday news release. C Spire CEO Hu Meena said in a statement that a primary goal of the network’s deployment “is to ensure Mississippi has easy access to fiber technology just as we are delivering on our goal of ensuring consumers and businesses in our state have access to the latest wireless technologies.” Residents could begin pre-registering for the service Tuesday, with C Spire saying it would use pre-registrations to determine which neighborhoods will be connected to the network. C Spire said its existing customers will pay $70 for just the fiber service, while non-customers will have to pay $80. The carrier is based in Jackson, Mississippi’s largest city and also where Meena lives.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto is working on legislation that would require smartphones sold in the state to be equipped with anti-theft kill switch technology, a spokeswoman told us Wednesday after a report appeared in the Reno Gazette-Journal (http://on.rgj.com/1ppP2N7). The bill would become effective July 1, and would impose a fine of $500 to $2,500 per smartphone sold after that date that didn’t include the technology, the spokeswoman said. The bill would follow California’s enactment last week of its own kill switch legislation and Minnesota’s enactment of anti-theft legislation in May. New York legislators plan to re-introduce their own kill switch legislation when the state’s legislature reconvenes in January, while similar efforts in Illinois and Rhode Island are on hold (CD Sept 2 p4). CTIA, which has opposed kill switch legislation as redundant to wireless industry commitments, didn’t immediately comment.

Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority denied Frontier Communications’ proposed settlement with state officials on public interest conditions for state approval of its proposed purchase of AT&T’s wireline, broadband and video assets there. PURA ordered Frontier Thursday to redraft the agreement with state Attorney General George Jepsen and the Office of Consumer Counsel (http://bit.ly/1lx0SKj). Elements of the agreement released last month (CD Aug 13 p13) “contain merit for further discussion in an effort to rehabilitate them wherever possible,” PURA said. The regulator said it will hold a technical meeting Sept. 10 to examine issues it had with the proposed settlement. PURA said it believes Frontier’s proposal to cap residential rates for 36 months isn’t a real benefit because residential rates weren’t forecast to rise, while Frontier hasn’t sufficiently explained its proposed $63 million broadband investment in Connecticut. Frontier’s proposal to work with the state Department of Veterans Affairs on outreach to state veterans is “premature” before the agency approves the partnership, while its proposal to let PURA determine which charities receive Frontier’s $500,000 in annual charitable contributions in the state is “not appropriate,” the regulator said. Jepsen said in a statement that PURA didn’t note all of the benefits contained in the proposed settlement, which “narrowed issues, produced benefits that might not otherwise be achievable in a contested final decision, and left PURA able to address in this docket or otherwise other issues of concern.” Jepsen said he disagrees “with other conclusions, including that the settlement is not enforceable -- it is enforceable by PURA itself, as with all settlements it approves.” A Frontier spokeswoman said the telco remains “confident” its proposed deal with AT&T is in the best interests of Connecticut residents.

North Dakota Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak said the reasoning behind the Broadband North Dakota Initiative championed by Democratic PSC candidates Tyler Axness and Todd Reisenauer shows the candidates don’t have “a very solid understanding of the status of broadband deployment in [North Dakota] or the jurisdiction of the PSC.” Axness, a state senator who’s challenging Republican Fedorchak for a spot on the PSC, had criticized its performance on telecom issues and said the Broadband North Dakota Initiative “will close the communication gap that exists in remote areas of western North Dakota” (CD Aug 29 p10). Fedorchak said in an email that “a number of business groups are looking at proposals for potential tax incentives to support additional broadband investments. I support that kind of approach. I believe the deregulation of telecom has been a big success for the innovation and advancement of this industry as evidenced by the sweeping changes in the past decade and revolution to wireless and data."

The New York Times endorsed Columbia University law professor Timothy Wu, who created the term “net neutrality” in 2003, for the Democratic nomination for New York’s lieutenant governor. Wu, who’s running for the nomination against former Rep. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., “wants to use the lieutenant governor’s job as a pulpit, to become the state’s de facto public advocate, particularly in support of consumer issues, Internet access and economic development zones,” The New York Times said Wednesday in its endorsement editorial. The newspaper said Wu had an “impressive record” in the legal field, including Internet law and policy, but has not previously held elected office (http://nyti.ms/1u0OSQO). Hochul’s campaign, which is backed by incumbent Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, didn’t immediately comment. The primary is Sept. 9.

Democratic North Dakota Public Service Commission candidates Tyler Axness and Todd Reisenauer said Tuesday that their Broadband North Dakota policy initiative would “advance North Dakota’s telecommunications infrastructure by incentivizing technology upgrades and providing universal access for every household and business in the state.” The initiative “will close the communication gap that exists in remote areas of western North Dakota,” Reisenauer said in a statement. “Doing so will enable a vast network of sensors and monitors which can be used to notify state leaders of an accident in real-time as well as dispatch first responders and alert environmental cleanup teams.” The Broadband North Dakota Initiative would require residential broadband connections to get a minimum top speed of 6 Mbps regardless of location in the state and would encourage gigabit broadband availability to businesses in the state, the candidates said. The initiative would also incentivize communications infrastructure development through tax credits and low interest loans through the Bank of North Dakota, as well as create a safety hazard sensor network in the state’s western oil patch region that would connect with state officials (http://bit.ly/1u0ZnDL). PSC Chairman Brian Kalk and Commissioner Julie Fedorchak, both Republicans and candidates for re-election, didn’t immediately comment.