The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates responded Friday to a “volley of ex partes” from various ISPs arguing the FCC shouldn’t reclassify broadband Internet as a Title II service. “Misclassification of Internet access has consistently undermined courts’ willingness to affirm” the net neutrality rules, NASUCA said in an ex parte filing in docket 14-28 (http://bit.ly/1oSy6Sh). ISPs’ “ad horrendum arguments” seek to “scare this Commission away from classifying broadband consistent with its function, i.e. as telecommunications,” NASUCA said. “AT&T preaches fire and brimstone” about the “evils of reclassification” -- namely that it will wreak havoc on the market and stifle investment, but that “apocalyptic vision ignores the fact that uncertainty is the state of the world,” NASUCA said. “Not-so-veiled threats” about reclassification’s “negative impact on investment” are counterbalanced by more than 170 Internet content providers and 150 venture capitalists “pleading” with the commission to “enact a clear and enforceable anti-discrimination regime,” it said. “Even under a common carrier regime, the nation’s carriers will prosper and investment will grow.”

New York City wants to replace payphones with facilities that allow for both new payphones and free public Wi-Fi, city representatives said in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. The city would take that step when current franchise agreements expire, said an ex parte filing on the meeting posted to docket 13-238 Friday (http://bit.ly/1psgEqa).

FairPoint Communications said Thursday its new ethernet business-class Internet service is available in 32 markets in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The service, capable of speeds up to 1 Gbps, will “meet the demands of some of the region’s largest institutions, such as regional health care facilities, financial institutions, and government and education entities,” FairPoint said. The company said it has spent more than $700 million on upgrades to its communications infrastructure since 2008. Other companies recently have said they are adding gigabit-speed service.

New Jersey’s Division of Rate Counsel appealed the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities' April 29 decision (CD May 16 p10) to allow Verizon to meet its commitment to build broadband throughout the state with wireless. BPU had ruled a 1993 agreement, in which Verizon promised full broadband deployment, did not mandate what technology would be used. The Tuesday appeal to the state Superior Court’s Appellate Division in Trenton said wireless “is not comparable to wireline or fiber broadband in service reliability or pricing.” Verizon said it’s reviewing the appeal and had no comment.

Alcatel-Lucent said Northeast Oklahoma Electric Cooperative subsidiary Bolt Fiber Optic Services selected it to create a broadband network for northeastern Oklahoma with a 1 Gbps top speed. Bolt Fiber intends to use the network to also deliver VoIP service and TV services in its service region, which includes rural communities and tribal areas. Alcatel-Lucent said it will use its gigabit passive optical network (GPON) technology to ensure Bolt Fiber’s desired 1 Gbps top speed, which is about 100 times faster than the average U.S. broadband connection speed. Alcatel-Lucent said it currently uses the GPON technology in broadband networks in Bristol and Chattanooga, Tennessee; Hong Kong; and Portugal. “Providing access to ultra-broadband will attract jobs and investment, improve lives through services like telemedicine and e-learning, and allow families to stay in the communities they love,” said Bolt Fiber Manager Sheila Allgood in a Tuesday Alcatel-Lucent news release (http://bit.ly/1wfAwyO).

TDS Telecom launched service with speeds of 1 Gbps Tuesday in Hollis, New Hampshire, it said in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1oqBOVr). Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., a Commerce Committee member, tweeted praise for the announcement and posted a photo of herself and TDS Telecom officials. The high-speed package is available for under $100 a month with a bundle, TDS said.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat, is urging state lawmakers to increase the monthly tax on cellphones from $2.50 to $3.90, said various reports in Chicago area publications (http://bit.ly/1oqwAJr). The move comes as the legislature heads for a scheduled adjournment Saturday. Free-market think tank the Heartland Institute criticized the development. “Mayor Emanuel’s proposed 56 percent increase in the city’s cell phone tax would give Chicago the highest tax of its kind in the nation,” said John Nothdurft, the institute’s director-government relations. “This is the tax equivalent to death by a million cuts. Is it any surprise then that the city has experienced population loss over the last decade?"

The public sector is using the Internet of Everything (IoE) to “increase efficiency, reduce costs, and ... improve the lives of citizens,” said a Cisco study (http://bit.ly/1o6MrwD) Wednesday exploring how the Internet is transforming government. The study examined 40 public sector jurisdictions in the U.S. and globally, said a news release (http://bit.ly/1kpAi2L). Among the findings: “Public sector organizations are among the world’s leading IoE innovators.” Cities are using comprehensive IoE strategies, as in the case of Amsterdam’s Smart City strategy, to deliver services more efficiently and find ways to increase revenue, the study said. IoE will be the “next wave of the Internet,” with an estimated $19 trillion in potential value over the next decade for both private and public sectors, Patrick Finn, senior vice president of Cisco’s U.S. Public Sector Organization, wrote in a Cisco blog post (http://bit.ly/1gQcS7A).

Vermont Monday became the first state to let customers of the four major carriers text 911 when the state and T-Mobile began implementing the service, said Vermont Enhanced 9-1-1 Board Executive Director David Tucker in an interview Wednesday. Verizon began offering the service in Vermont in 2012, and AT&T and Sprint followed last year, he said. The four major carriers met a voluntary May 15 deadline (CD Dec 10/12 p1) to make their networks capable of transmitting texts nationwide. Vermont is the only state where all public service answering points (PSAPs) are able to handle the texts, he said. About 98 percent of the state’s wireless subscribers, excepting those of smaller carriers not subject to the deadline, can now text 911, he said. Nationally, the May 15 deadline doesn’t mean text-to-911 will be available to all consumers, said National Emergency Number Association CEO Brian Fontes in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/1o6jGQE). Text-to-911 “availability will ultimately depend on funding and the deployment of hardware, software, and training programs” at the nearly 6,000 911 centers across the country, Fontes said. “Progress will vary from one community to the next.” Traditional voice calls to 911 are the fastest and most efficient way to call for help, Tucker said. The text technology is “especially important to the deaf or hard of hearing, or people in a dangerous situation like domestic violence or an intruder in the house when a person may be afraid of making a voice call,” he said.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau is starting an investigation into 911 outage on April 9 and 10 that prevented more than 4,500 911 calls from reaching public safety answering points (PSAP) in Washington state, the bureau said in a public notice Monday. “Given the large area impacted by this outage, the interdependent communications infrastructure spread across multiple states and providers, and the critical importance of dependable and resilient 911 service throughout” the U.S., the bureau “is examining the causes, effects, and implications of this outage,” said the PN (http://bit.ly/1p71NOY). 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 (WUTC) has also opened a state investigation. CenturyLink said in a April 24 major outage report (http://1.usa.gov/1hVzai5) (CD May 1 p12) filed with the WUTC that a PSAP trunk member (PTM) threshold counter, which routes calls to the appropriate PSAPs, ran out of capacity. The PTM is run by CenturyLink contractor Intrado, in the Englewood, Colo., Emergency Call Management Complex. Neither CenturyLink nor Intrado immediately had a reaction to the FCC investigation.