Today: Kentucky Raises Surcharge for 911, New York Broadband Expansion Program, Washington Small Cell Ordinance

Kentucky County Raises Surcharge for 911

Hardin County, Kentucky has made an annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) adjustment to their wireline Enhanced 911 Emergency Telephone Surcharge. Effective April 1, 2018, the County surcharge is increasing to $2.74 per wireline. City/County rates are available in the Inteserra 911 Look Up.  Many counties collect fees from VoIP providers under landline ordinances that do not mention VoIP explicitly. 

New York Broadband Expansion Program

The Governor recently announced the awards and investments for the round III which is the final round of the program.  The Governor touted that “[t]he $209.7 million Round III awards will provide 122,285 homes, businesses and community institutions across the state with access to highspeed Internet, driving in aggregate more than $341.8 million of public/private broadband investment.”  With this final round there were 43 awarded projects which will deploy approximately 7,544 miles of infrastructure.  This project is using State-obtained funds as well as some that were requested from the FCC Connect America Fund (CAF II) program.  Through all three of the rounds the Broadband Program Office has now awarded a total of 122 projects with 34 different companies.  In total these projects should address more than 250,000 locations deploying more than 21,000 miles of fiber.

Washington is Moving Forward with Small Cell Ordinance

The state of Washington passed small cell legislation effective in 2014.  However, that legislation only dealt with allowing consolidated small cell facility applications and limiting charges by municipalities for site-specific placement charges.  New legislation is pending in Washington state that looks to be more comprehensive.

The city of Renton, WA is moving forward with their own small cell legislation (Ordinance No. 5867).  This ordinance addresses updating the city codes to allow for siting of small cell facilities, microcells (micro wireless), and distributed antenna systems (DAS).  A copy of the proposed ordinance can be found here. 

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s daily blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.