The House Consumer Affairs Committee has scheduled a voting meeting for Tuesday, January 14, 2019 to consider House Bill 1400, legislation dealing with 5G deployment in Pennsylvania. In its current form, the bill provides for the uniform regulatory treatment of small cell facility deployment at the municipal level. A Multichannel News article on the 5G […]

Another effort to combat robocalling this week in the form of Sprint’s announcement that it is instituting a free call blocking service for its customers called Call Screener Basic. An enhanced version will be available for $2.99 per month. Stay tuned to see how well it stays ahead of the scammers.

On Tuesday, the FCC issued a news release announcing a streamlined consumer enrollment process for telcos to use when enrolling consumers in the Lifeline program. The application programming interface (API) connects the companies’ systems to the National Eligibility Verifier and reduces paperwork currently required from potential subscribers.

More grenade pins pulled this week in the war of words over 5G deployment, as T-Mobile announced on Tuesday that it has “lit up” its nationwide 5G network which covers more than 200 million people across the country. In a FierceWireless article, company spokesman Neville Ray offered that Verizon’s 5G effort is “sparse, expensive, and […]

Yesterday, the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission unanimously voted to adopt the PUC’s regulations regarding pole attachments. PTA supported this initiative and filed comments with the Commission noting that its taking adjudication of pole attachment disputes from the FCC would help bolster rural broadband deployment. During discussion of the regulation, the associated costs on the […]

This may be a report card you lose on your way home from school. The Free State Foundation handed out grades on the issue of broadband deployment to some of the top Democratic contenders for President this week, and it wasn’t pretty. The FSF report graded on two specific items: 1) net neutrality and the […]

Proponents of 5G continue to work their way through the halls of Congress and statehouses extolling its virtues, but could climate change be one of them? The answer is yes, according to Verizon’s Ronan Dunne, who told attendees at an international tech summit in Lisbon that 5G has the potential to improve energy efficiency and […]

The Tax Foundation released its 2020 State Business Tax Climate report this week and Pennsylvania did…. not great. An overall rank of 29th best is bolstered by the fact that we did rise three places in the survey, but a 46 ranking for business taxes doesn’t have anyone cheering. The top overall friendliest tax states […]

Luzerne County’s Ralph Yanora received unanimous support from the Senate Consumer Protection and Licensure Committee to succeed Norm Kennard as a PA PUC Commissioner on Tuesday and passed full Senate muster by a vote of 45-3 mid-week. A Commission news release on the matter highlights Yanora’s 40-year experience in the water, wastewater and natural gas […]