California measure SB-962 (http://bit.ly/1fEdpZv), which would require smartphones sold in the state to come pre-equipped with a kill switch in case they are stolen or lost, continued to move through the Assembly after being approved by the Utilities and Commerce committee Monday. The measure has also passed the Senate and the Assembly’s Business and Professions committee, and will next head to the Assembly floor, said a news release by the bill’s Senate sponsor, Democratic Sen. Mark Leno (http://bit.ly/TrRniA). The wireless industry has opposed the measure, saying it has voluntarily agreed to install technology that allows the disabling of the smartphones if they're lost or stolen -- measures Leno considers inadequate because consumers would have to actively turn on or download the feature. The bill’s approval was “unnecessary because of the numerous actions the wireless industry has taken to provide consumers with the tools and information needed to help deter smartphone theft,” said Jamie Hastings, CTIA vice president-external and state affairs, in a statement. “State-by-state technology mandates stifle innovation to the ultimate detriment to the consumer."The FCC is also looking at ways to address a rapid increase in smartphone thefts (CD June 20 p1).

The Louisiana Public Service Commission should decline jurisdiction over AT&T’s planned buy of DirecTV or take a position of non-opposition in approving it, AT&T said in an ex parte filing posted in docket S-33251 Friday (http://1.usa.gov/1ny8R4u). The transaction would not result in the change of ownership or control of any telecom service provider (TSP) in the state, said the petition filed June 12. “AT&T is not a TSP,” but a “holding company that through its subsidiaries and affiliated companies, provides telecommunications services,” the petition said. It said DirecTV is also not a TSP, but a “holding company that, through its subsidiaries and affiliated companies, provides satellite digital television services.” The combination of AT&T’s national broadband networks with DirecTV’s “programming expertise, technologies and services ... will create a strong competitor that delivers consumers an attractive combination of broadband, video and wireless services,” said the acquirer. The deal “will allow AT&T to expand and enhance its deployment of both wireline and fixed wireless broadband substantially, primarily to underserved rural areas,” the petition said. If the PSC takes up the case, AT&T asked that it issue a decision within 15 days of June 20. A DirecTV spokesman said state regulatory approvals may be needed in Arizona, Hawaii and Louisiana. AT&T didn’t respond to our inquiry. Spokespeople for the Arizona and Hawaii PUCs said no petitions have been filed in those states. Observers see the deal being approved if it’s seen as a horizontal acquisition (CD May 16 p9).

The Illinois Public Telecommunications Association will petition the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for a rehearing and also a rehearing en banc of its June 13 decision (http://1.usa.gov/1ltd6Bf) (docket 13-1059) in Illinois Public Telecommunications Association v. FCC, IPTA attorney Michael Ward told us. The court upheld an FCC decision not to grant payphone service providers refunds from AT&T and Verizon (CD June 16 p9). The D.C. Circuit said it was not unreasonable or arbitrary for the FCC to permit refunds of charges that exceeded the cost-based rates mandated under Telecom Act Section 276, Ward noted in an email Friday. That puts the court at odds with previous 9th and 10th Circuit decisions that said the filed rate doctrine could not bar refunds of charges that exceeded the cost-based 276 Section rates, Ward said. The FCC did not immediately comment.

None of the public safety answering points in Washington state’s largest county was notified by CenturyLink or its vendor, Intrado, that there was a problem during the April 9 and 10 911 outage, commented King County’s E-911 Program Office in (http://bit.ly/1nPAgBZ) FCC docket 14-72. Comments were posted there Tuesday. The PSAPs were informed of the outage by the public reporting that 911 calls did not go through or by noticing a reduction in call volume, the county said. The CenturyLink 911 repair center was “quickly overloaded” and the majority of calls from PSAPs went unanswered or were put on hold for extended periods, it said. Neither CenturyLink nor Intrado provided instructions to PSAPs on what could be done to mitigate the outage, leaving PSAPs “on their own to try to figure out how to provide some level of service to the public,” said the county. The outage was due to a “technical problem in third-party vendor equipment” and was “not caused by any failures or malfunctions of CenturyLink’s network,” commented the telco (http://bit.ly/1pIGaYT). “Once the third party vendor identified and corrected this technical problem, 911 service was immediately restored ... CenturyLink is fully committed to providing its customers reliable communications services, particularly 911 service, and understands how vital robust communications services are to the public.” The Telecommunications Industry Association supports FCC efforts to ensure 911 networks are “reliable and resilient,” but the FCC should “refrain from taking regulatory action,” TIA commented (http://bit.ly/1qsz0b3). The FCC should “encourage and allow network operators and vendors to continue their voluntary efforts in improving the reliability of their networks,” TIA said. The FCC Public Safety Bureau began an investigation into the outage May 19 (CD May 20 p18). The six-hour outage also affected large areas of Oregon and portions of California, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, the bureau said. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission has also opened a state investigation. A CenturyLink spokeswoman had no additional comment beyond its filing. An Intrado spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment.

California AB-1876, which would bar counties from charging phone companies large commissions to provide jail phone service, passed the Senate public safety committee on Tuesday and was sent to the appropriations committee, according to legislative records. The measure (http://bit.ly/PYeH5o) passed the Assembly May 23. The commission fees have come under attack from critics nationally, who say they raise intrastate inmate phone rates (CD May 5 p8).

A California bill that would require smartphones to come equipped with theft-deterring kill switches passed the Assembly Business and Professions Committee on Tuesday. SB-962, approved by the Senate (CD May 9 p21) May 8, now moves to the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, said a news release by the bill’s Senate sponsor, Sen. Mark Leno (D) (http://bit.ly/1njBALK). “Smartphone theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in many cities across California, but it is also a preventable crime,” said Leno. The bill has been opposed by the wireless industry, which has pledged to voluntarily install kill switches in the phones and argues the bill’s mandate wouldn’t keep pace with rapidly changing technology. The measure is “neither necessary nor workable,” said Jamie Hastings, CTIA vice president-external and state affairs, in testimony to the committee Tuesday made available to us by the wireless association. Leno has said the pledge doesn’t go far enough because unlike his bill, the technology would have to be turned on or downloaded by the owner. “No one wants to steal a phone that won’t work,” said the bill’s Assembly sponsor, Democratic Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, in the release from Leno’s office.

The Illinois Public Telecommunications Association was disappointed by Friday’s U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling in Illinois Public Telecommunications Association v. FCC (http://1.usa.gov/1ltd6Bf)(docket 13-1059)(CD June 16 p9), IPTA attorney Michael Ward told us. The court upheld a FCC decision not to grant payphone service providers refunds from AT&T and Verizon. “The court didn’t uphold the integrity of the administrative process,” said Ward Friday, arguing the payphone companies had met the FCC order’s obligations but didn’t get the refunds they felt entitled to receive. IPTA hasn’t decided whether to appeal the ruling, he said.

Arkansas Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe called for changing 2011’s Act 1050 (http://bit.ly/1lB3u7v) that prevents K-12 schools from accessing the Arkansas Research Education Optical Network, known as ARE-ON, a news release said (http://1.usa.gov/1nMQZpt). Without access to the statewide broadband network, a recent report (http://bit.ly/1iBpZJy) from the Quality Digital Learning Study Committee found, the current network infrastructure for K-12 schools is “inadequate, inefficient and a poor return on taxpayer investment,” said the governor’s office Friday. “Giving K-12 schools the opportunity to access ARE-ON will provide better online availability for our students and save our taxpayers money,” Beebe said. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. John Vines, a Democrat, was not immediately available for comment.

The FCC is reviewing options on how best to move to pre-empt state laws banning municipal broadband, Chairman Tom Wheeler said in response to our question after the agency’s meeting Friday. An agency spokesman had said it planned to move on municipal broadband in May (CD April 29 p3). “Sometimes things don’t move as quickly as otherwise might be determined or hoped,” Wheeler said Friday. “We obviously have multiple pathways to deal with the question of municipal broadband. We can have a notice of inquiry. We can have an NPRM. We can respond to a petition. And right now, we're kind of reviewing what all of the options are.” Any of those options may be possible, he said. “I have made no secret about my feelings about the issue” of municipal broadband, Wheeler said. “Being pro-competition means being pro-competition.”

West Virgina’s Broadband Deployment Council, charged with expanding high-speed Internet availability in the state, will disband at the end of the year, after failing to get additional funds from the Legislature to do other projects, the council’s chairman Dan O'Hanlon told us in an email. The council was given $5 million when it was established in 2009 by then-Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat. The council used the initial funds, mostly for wireless Internet projects in rural areas, as well as to hire a consultant to review grant applications and create a deployment map, O'Hanlon said.