Adam Bender

The California Public Utilities Commission threatened action against several large phone and cable companies that the agency says didn’t fully comply with a March 15 request for granular deployment data needed for a state map required for California’s $6 billion broadband effort. The CPUC seeks responses by Friday to similar warning letters sent June 10. ISPs said privacy and confidentiality concerns stopped them from sharing all data sought by the state commission.

AT&T may give up eligible telecom carrier designation for remaining Ohio areas it didn’t earlier relinquish, the Ohio Public Utilities Commission agreed Wednesday. Commissioners voted 5-0 at a livestreamed meeting to approve the carrier’s Sept. 3 petition in 21-917-TP-UNC (see 2204040037). The PUC “finds that most of AT&T Ohio’s Lifeline customers in the relinquishment area will have one or more ETCs to choose from for their Lifeline service,” said Wednesday’s order. The commission carved out seven Lifeline customers identified by staff as lacking alternatives. Also, PUC members voted 5-0 to approve Time Warner Cable’s Oct. 25 petition to remove from its ETC-designated service area some census blocks where it no longer will receive Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support (docket 21-27-TP-UNC). Commissioners agreed to both items without discussion.

California could make jail and prison calls free under a bill cleared Tuesday by the Assembly Public Safety Committee. San Francisco Sheriff Paul Miyamoto disagreed with other county sheriff departments that opposed SB-1008. Meanwhile, at a Senate hearing, ISP associations and Republicans opposed a bill to restrict state contracts only to ISPs that offer affordable internet services.

Alaska’s attorney general supported connections-based contribution and assessing broadband services for Alaska USF. Assessing fees by connection is more sustainable, the AG’s Regulatory Affairs and Public Advocacy (RAPA) division said in comments received Monday by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA). “It is fair and reasonable to require broadband Internet connections to support the network that allows carriers to provide that specific service,” RAPA said in the RCA's USF review in docket R-21-001 (see 2205160022). Associations that filed competing AUSF revamp plans supported connections-based contribution. Matanuska Telecom Association (MTA) called its plan a “simple and immediate solution,” while “time is simply running out for the Commission to vet and implement the complicated, still conceptual proposals” from staff and the Alaska Remote Carrier Coalition. ARCC said the MTA proposal “makes only minor changes to the status quo and thus ignores the greatest need" in Alaska, "the off-road network remote villages.” ARCC agreed the RCA should adopt a connections-based method and supported assessing broadband. Federal infrastructure dollars are meant to supplement but not replace state funding, ARCC said. Alaska Communications supported a voice connections-based method. GCI isn’t sure what to do about AUSF, it said. “While GCI is very much open to continuation of an appropriate AUSF, GCI does not believe that a record has yet been developed to support any specific proposal. With federal funding on the way, “now is not a prudent time for the Commission to expand or repurpose the AUSF for broadband,” said CTIA: Changing to connections-based contribution “would worsen, not improve, the impact of the economic burden on hardworking Alaskans by making the assessment more regressive, hitting low-income and low-volume users hardest, and shifting the overall burden away from business customers and towards residential users."

A tsunami of telemarketing lawsuits is expected as more states add restrictions beyond what’s in the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, warned TCPA defense attorneys. Last year’s Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA) already is producing several class-action lawsuits a day, said Manatt attorney Christine Reilly in an interview. Businesses wanting to avoid lawsuits should “just get the express written consent required” before spamming consumers, responded class-action attorney Andrew Shamis of Shamis Gentile.

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission could post revised draft rule changes on emergency service network reliability next month. At a partially virtual hearing Thursday, Administrative Law Judge Conor Farley ordered a July 15 report on ongoing workshops to find consensus on changes meant to improve basic emergency service (BES) network reliability and set a tariff-based mechanism for funding network improvements. Farley said he hopes the report will include final redlined rules reflecting an agreement among parties in docket 22R-0122T. If it does, the ALJ plans to seek written comments by July 22 and replies by July 29, then take oral comments at a hearing Aug. 5 at 11:30 a.m. MDT, he said. If no consensus is reached by July 15, staff should file a status report that day, with next steps to be discussed at the Aug. 5 hearing, he said. Under proposed rules in a March NPRM, BES providers would have to submit a network reliability improvement plan and seek PUC certification every 10 years. “Requiring recertification is intended to better enable periodic reviews such that the Commission, customers, and other stakeholders can better ensure that a [provider] remains accountable in maintaining and updating its services to support statewide emergency service networks,” it said. The Colorado PUC convened three workshops last month on “foundational concepts,” said State 911 Program Manager Daryl Branson in a Monday filing. The group met again earlier this week to start digging into possible revisions to the draft rules, with a goal of finishing them by July 18, Branson said at Thursday’s hearing. Workshops are expected to continue through July 12, said the filing: Participants have included Lumen, Intrado, CTIA, Colorado Council of Authorities, Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority (BRETSA) and the state utility consumer advocate.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission should consider revoking LTD Broadband’s eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation, said the state Commerce Department in Wednesday reply comments in docket M-21-133. ETC designation is needed for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support. Minnesota Commerce, which didn’t make a recommendation in initial comments last week (see 2206020046), said now that the “collective concerns raised by the petitioners, rural organizations, counties, and townships … provide compelling reasons for the Commission to open an investigation.” The PUC should launch an expedited proceeding that includes discovery and cross-examination of expert witnesses, the department said. The Minnesota attorney general’s office said it continues to recommend a proceeding. LTD disagreed, saying "It would be unfair, and violate the principle of competitive neutrality, if the expanded ETC designation granted to [LTD] last year is singled out for re-examination or revocation when other Minnesota RDOF ETCs, who made the same commitments as LTD, are not subject to the same scrutiny.” Any compliance or oversight requirements “should apply to all ETCs” and should be addressed in the PUC’s docket CI-21-86 on ETC designation authority “on a timeline and in a manner that does not jeopardize LTD’s eligibility for RDOF funding,” it said. Initial comments showed widespread, deep concerns, which are "fully justified,” replied the Minnesota Telecom Alliance and Minnesota Rural Electric Association, which originally asked for the proceeding. “Unless LTD delivers on its promises, over 160,000 Minnesota residents could be denied the benefit of federal support for broadband deployment." Chippewa County wants an expedited proceeding because it has been unable to communicate with LTD Broadband and "its residents have lost faith” that LTD can fulfill its promises, the county said. "The RDOF Award and LTD's ETC designation puts Chippewa County at a significant disadvantage for economic growth and vitality."

A state privacy bill cleared New Jersey’s Senate Commerce Committee in a 3-2 partisan vote Thursday. The panel's Democrats voted for S-332, but Republicans said no at the livestreamed hearing. Chair Nellie Pou (D) said she had a commitment from sponsor Sen. Troy Singleton (D) that the bill won't go to the floor until he can review all comments on the bill and speak to anyone who wants to discuss it. The New Jersey Business & Industry Association is still analyzing the bill, said Vice President-Government Affairs Ray Cantor. The association hopes a bipartisan federal bill proposed last week (see 2206070062) might mean a “breakthrough” in Congress, he said. The New Jersey bill would require websites to notify consumers about -- and allow them to opt out of -- collection and disclosure of personally identifiable information. It would give the state attorney general exclusive enforcement authority.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities voted 5-0 Wednesday to update and readopt telecom service rules that were set to expire July 20. Staff sought to respond to technological changes and customer concerns since the rules were last readopted seven years ago, said New Jersey BPU Cable Television and Telecommunications Director Lawanda Gilbert at the livestreamed meeting. Noting “numerous” calls for improved standards, Commissioner Mary-Anna Holden praised updated telecom service rules as “long overdue.” Changes include deleting or revising obsolete definitions, strengthening requirements for carriers to provide complete listings of all rates, terms and conditions on their websites, and ensuring companies give timely notification to customers about changes requiring rescheduling or cancellations of service calls, Gilbert said. Updated rules will modify service-quality standards to require reporting at a more granular level, require submission of annual maintenance plans for poles and wires, and require customer account adjustments within two billing cycles when there are outages, she said. Another change extends the scope of the board's existing mass-migration rules to apply when a carrier withdraws service from the entire customer base within the state without providing a replacement service, she said. Industry had commented in docket TX21040718 that the competitive market makes tightening the board’s rules unnecessary, Gilbert noted. “However, Staff believes measures such as these are needed to address matters that are continually the subject of customer complaints that we receive, including service quality issues and reports of plants in disrepair.” The BPU in March updated cable service-quality rules (see 2203090025).

California greenlit a much-awaited privacy rulemaking when the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) agreed at a meeting livestreamed Wednesday to consider California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) draft rules. Proposed regulations tilt heavily toward consumers and could raise business compliance costs, said privacy lawyers.