BBWN Bites: NY broadband bill dies on Cuomo's desk

Also in this roundup: Openreach customers cut off by arsonists; Eutelsat, TelOne to bring satellite Internet to Zimbabwe; Vodafone, Nokia tout progress on "teleportation."

• New York Governor Andrew Cuomo "pocket vetoed" a broadband bill this week that would have required the state to perform an in-depth study of broadband coverage to determine where it's lacking. The bill, passed last year by bipartisan votes in the State Senate and Assembly, needed to be signed by the governor by January 31, 2021, to become law. Legislators had recently taken to publicly calling on the governor in op-eds and on social media to sign the bill. By letting it expire, Cuomo has effectively killed the legislation. In a statement this week, Assemblymember Angelo Santabarbara (D-Rotterdam), called out the pocket veto for hurting rural communities. "Sadly, the governor has now vetoed legislation I co-sponsored that would have directed the Public Service Commission to review internet services within the state to determine the reality of accessibility, especially in our rural communities," he said. "This frustrating delay only means that our rural communities must continue to wait for the Governor to fulfill his longstanding promise to close the gaps in broadband services through the New NY Broadband Program made back in 2015." Rich Azzopardi, an advisor to Governor Cuomo, said in a statement that the legislation was scrapped because it had "a $3 million fiscal cost that occurred outside of the budget ... However, we agree with it in concept and will be including a proposal in the budget" for 2022. That budget is due April 1. As outlined in his State of the State address delivered in January, Cuomo is also expected to include a mandate that broadband service providers offer a $15 monthly plan for low-income families; though this would of course not solve the state's access problems meant to be targeted by the now-dead broadband mapping bill, and the details for a similar mapping effort remain to be seen.

• Openreach experienced an apparent arson attack on its fiber network in Chelmsford, Essex, on Sunday evening, resulting in about 2,700 customers losing broadband and phone services. In a statement on Monday, Kevin Murphy, Openreach's managing director for fiber network delivery said, the company's security team was "working with the relevant authorities to make sure that this incident is fully investigated and those responsible are held to account." By Tuesday afternoon the company said it had already restored services to hundreds of customers, and expected to return to full service by mid-to-late week but offered no further update on the attack.

• "Imagine as a Vodafone customer being able to touch an object over the internet, share a meal with a 3D-holographic family member or even transmit the smell of a bunch of roses," states a press release from Vodafone this week. The company was not, as it might seem, issuing a statement on the benefits of hallucinogens, but in fact touting its partnership with Nokia to "successfully test a new network technology, running at the blistering speed of 100 gigabits-per-second," which Vodafone says "could pave the way for 'teleportation over the Internet' applications." The companies successfully carried out their trial at Vodafone's Eschborn lab in Germany, delivering 100 Gbit/s on a single PON wavelength. Before you call up your 3D-holographic family members to share the good news, please note that Vodafone says 100 Gbit/s PON won't become available until later this decade.

• Zimbabwe will benefit from a new multi-year partnership between Eutelsat Communications and TelOne to bring satellite broadband to the region. As per the agreement, Zimbabwe ISP TelOne will be able to leverage Eutelsat's "Konnect" satellite to bring connectivity to remote and rural areas beginning March 2021. In a statement, Chipo Mtasa, managing director of TelOne, said, "By securing this premium capacity and service we will be able to pursue our mission of offering fast, reliable broadband services at an affordable price to homes, businesses, educational institutions and Government departments all over Zimbabwe. We are passionate about making long-lasting and meaningful connections through our services, and this will now become a reality for customers in even the remotest regions, in line with our vision for a digitally enabled society by 2023."

— Nicole Ferraro, contributing editor, Light Reading