A Connecticut court said the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority overreached when it ruled 2-0 last year that “municipal gain” space on utility poles or underground ducts -- reserved by a 2013 law “for any purpose” -- can't be used to provide muni broadband. Tuesday's Connecticut Superior Court ruling agreed with the state consumer counsel and municipal appellants that PURA “acted beyond its statutory power, and its action was invalid.” The court disagreed with PURA saying the 2013 law wasn’t plain and unambiguous about whether the space could be used for any purpose: “The authority created ambiguity where none otherwise exists by finding the conflicting construction proposed by the petitioners equally ‘plausible.’” The authority “paid no attention to the words of the statute, made no attempt to discern their meaning,” and should have checked the dictionary for the meaning of “any,” said the court. Sections 224 and 253 of the federal Telecom Act, and a Connecticut telecom law, apply only to telecom services, so they don’t prohibit a municipality from using the space for internet services, it said. The court noted the matter “is clearly headed toward higher judicial ground.” PURA didn’t comment.
After months of speculation it was an acquisition target, Fitbit said Friday it agreed to be bought by Google for $7.35 per share in a cash deal valued at $2.1 billion. Under the proposed deal, Fitbit will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Google, said an 8-K filing with the SEC. Numerous sources reported last week Google was interested in the fitness wearable and data company, shooting Fitbit shares up 30 percent Monday to $5.62.
Pole riders sought revamped Connecticut pole attachment rules to deal with a rush of attachment applications. The state Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA) asked for feedback by Wednesday on a United Illuminating proposal to revise PURA's temporary attachment guidelines, but CenturyLink and the New England Cable and Telecommunications Association (NECTA) suggested in comments in docket 19-01-52 that the pole owner’s plan doesn’t address the full problem. Meanwhile, Connecticut legislators’ failure to pass a municipal broadband bill sent debate over a pole space reserved for municipal use back to court.
A Connecticut bill to resolve a long-standing fight about municipal broadband is headed to the Senate floor. SB-846 got wide support from the Joint Finance Committee, which voted 42-6 Tuesday. It clarifies local governments may use a reserved space on poles called the “municipal gain” for municipal broadband. Frontier Communications claims the bill would stunt broadband growth.
A Connecticut bill to resolve a long-standing fight about municipal broadband is headed to the Senate floor. SB-846 got wide support from the Joint Finance Committee, which voted 42-6 Tuesday. It clarifies local governments may use a reserved space on poles called the “municipal gain” for municipal broadband. Frontier Communications claims the bill would stunt broadband growth.
The announcement SnapAV is combining with Control4 caught the custom electronics industry by surprise Thursday as news spread that the manufacturer of some 1,500 products for the custom channel agreed to buy publicly held Control4 for $680 million. “If I had had an inkling, I would have bought a bunch of stock yesterday,” Home Technology Specialists of America Executive Director Jon Robbins quipped.
The Connecticut Superior Court should reject a Public Utilities Regulatory Authority decision limiting local-government use of the municipal-gain space on poles by considering the plain meaning of a 2013 state law saying the space may be used “for any purpose,” the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel wrote in a Monday reply brief. Connecticut defended PURA in December for interpreting the phrase as not allowing municipal broadband, saying the agency had sought a reasoned construction of statute comporting with state and federal law (see 1812100006). The 2013 law was written when broadband on utility poles was common, so it's “inconceivable” municipalities might use the gain for public broadband, OCC said. By considering federal laws, PURA overreached because it isn't a court that may determine constitutionality of state laws, the consumer counsel said. It was "textbook arbitrary and capricious," because the regulator said in a 2004 decision on dispute between Southern New England Telephone Co. and Manchester, Connecticut, that it had no jurisdiction over the internet as an information service, but in the 2018 case, PURA argued lack of jurisdiction was irrelevant, OCC said. Oral argument could be in April, OCC Principal Attorney Joe Rosenthal told us.
The Connecticut Superior Court should reject a Public Utilities Regulatory Authority decision limiting local-government use of the municipal-gain space on poles by considering the plain meaning of a 2013 state law saying the space may be used “for any purpose,” the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel wrote in a Monday reply brief. Connecticut defended PURA in December for interpreting the phrase as not allowing municipal broadband, saying the agency had sought a reasoned construction of statute comporting with state and federal law (see 1812100006). The 2013 law was written when broadband on utility poles was common, so it's “inconceivable” municipalities might use the gain for public broadband, OCC said. By considering federal laws, PURA overreached because it isn't a court that may determine constitutionality of state laws, the consumer counsel said. It was "textbook arbitrary and capricious," because the regulator said in a 2004 decision on dispute between Southern New England Telephone Co. and Manchester, Connecticut, that it had no jurisdiction over the internet as an information service, but in the 2018 case, PURA argued lack of jurisdiction was irrelevant, OCC said. Oral argument could be in April, OCC Principal Attorney Joe Rosenthal told us.
LAS VEGAS -- Though large-screen hybrid quantum-dot OLED TVs aren't nearly “ready for market,” Jason Hartlove, CEO of QD materials supplier Nanosys, expects the technology will make “pretty significant development progress this year” as prelude to a commercial product launch in 2020 or 2021, he told us at CES. A QD-OLED hybrid TV combining QD’s superior color rendering with OLED’s unmatched contrast performance is one of several technologies Samsung is developing for the future premium large-screen TV segment, said the Tier 1 TV maker last summer (see 1807310002).
Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority wasn’t “nullifying a statute” when it ruled 2-0 in May that “municipal gain” space on utility poles or underground ducts -- reserved by a 2013 law “for any purpose” -- may not be used to provide muni broadband, the state said. PURA was “searching for a reasoned construction of the statute that comports with state and federal law,” Attorney General George Jepsen (D) said in a Friday brief at the Connecticut Superior Court. The court should dismiss appeals by the Connecticut Consumer Counsel and municipalities (see 1811010036), he said. PURA holds broad jurisdiction over utility poles and attachments; the agency issued its interpretation after all parties had a chance to submit comments and have oral argument, the AG said. "Applying the language of the amended statute, PURA appropriately concluded that the statute should be read in concert with procompetitive frameworks established in state and federal law," and PURA’s construction is consistent with the state’s policy of promoting competition, Jepsen said. “The 2013 amendment to Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-233 modified the first sentence by replacing the words ‘for municipal and state signal wires’ with the words ‘for any purpose.’ It notably, however, left the last sentence intact, namely the requirement that the gain described in the first two sentences ‘shall be reserved for use by the town, city, borough, fire district or the Department of Transportation.’ Offering broadband services to the public is not ‘use by the town.’” Reclassification of broadband from U.S. Telecom Act Title II to an information service isn't relevant because Connecticut has pole-attachment authority and PURA based its decision on those rules, the AG said.