Charter Files Complaint Against Verizon on Pole Attachments in New York

The competition in the telecommunications sector is nowhere fiercer than when it comes to access to utility poles. This week, Charter filed a complaint against Verizon with the New York State Public Service Commission (NYSPCS).

The complaint charges that Verizon denied Charter access to its poles. As told by Ars Technica, Charter agreed to extend New York network by 145,000 homes and businesses by May 2020 as part of the approval for its purchase of Time Warner Cable.

Last week, Charter was fined by the state for failure to complete the first part of the expansion. The complaint says that Verizon’s failure to grant access to poles it owns or co-owns was responsible for the failure to meet the deadline.

The story has all the numbers: How many applications were made, how many were approved, how many were rejected and how much Charter paid. The story also notes that Verizon was unsuccessful in an effort to buy Charter earlier this year.

Z-Wave Alliance Passes 600-Member Mark

The Z-Wave Alliance, which is a large consortium of companies aiming to create an Internet of Things-based (IoT) family of home networking standards, said that the organization now has more than 600 member companies and that it has certified more than 2,100 devices.

Since January, the consortium said, more than 150 companies have joined. Ninety-eight percent of certifications this year were of the Z-Wave Plus version of the standard. Overall, almost half of all certifications were Z-Wave Plus. Though it focuses on the home, Z-Wave and similar initiatives will be felt in business because of the increasing use of the same devices for work and leisure.

AMD’s Ryzen Pro Focuses on Security

The unfolding Petya ransomware attack is another reminder that enterprises must redouble security efforts. For that reason, the time is good for the introduction of the Ryzen Pro by AMD.

ZDNet says that the processor, which is available with as many as eight cores and 16 threads and runs as high as 3.7 GHz, uses the company’s SensMI technology and offers as much as 20mb L2 and L3 low latency cache.

Security is center stage on the processor. The Ryzen Pro includes silicon-level security and cryptographic technologies at the hardware level. It also supports secure boot, the firmware Trust Platform Module (fTPM), the advanced encryption standard (AES) 128-bit encryption engine, DRAM encryption and Windows 10 Enterprise security features. The mobile version is on track for release during the first half of next year.

Trump Nominates Carr to Be FCC Commissioner

President Trump has nominated Brendan Carr to be the third Republican FCC commissioner. If confirmed, Carr would sit alongside Republicans Ajit Pai, who is chairman, and Michael O’Rielly. The two Democrats could be former commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, whom Trump re-nominated earlier this month, and Mignon Clyburn. However, Clyburn’s term ends at the end of the month and Trump could name someone else.

Carr, according to Light Reading, has already won the backing of Comcast, the NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, the American Cable Association and others.

GAO Criticizes FCC’s Lifeline Program

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report this week that criticized the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) management of the Lifeline program, which is intended to provide telecommunications products and services to the economically disadvantaged.

Many irregularities were pointed out by the GAO. For instance, it could not confirm the veracity enrollment forms from about 1.2 million of 3.5 million that it assessed. The FCC, the report found, uses a private bank for about $9 billion held by the Universal Services Fund (USF), which runs the program. That is thought to be an unsound business practice.

The Lifeline program has long been a political football. During the last administration, charges of giving away “Obama Phones” to the poor were used by the opponents to suggest politically motivated giveaways.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at cweinsch@optonline.net and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.