The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission aims to spur broadband with its first pole-attachment dispute resolution since the state asserted authority in March by reverse preempting the FCC, Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille said at Thursday's virtual meeting. Commissioners voted unanimously to reduce telecom attachment rates FirstEnergy charges Verizon. In other states that day, California Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) announced a second go at her Broadband for All bill and Colorado’s Broadband Advisory Board held its first meeting.
Expect President-elect Joe Biden’s DOJ to quickly withdraw from a lawsuit at U.S. District Court for Eastern California challenging that state’s net neutrality law (case 2:18-cv-02660), experts said in interviews this week. It probably wouldn’t stop USTelecom, CTIA, NCTA and ACA Connects from continuing industry’s challenge (case 2:18-cv-02684), they said. Open-internet bills blossomed in many states after Chairman Ajit Pai’s FCC reversed the previous commission’s Communications Act Title II order.
Consumer complaints about Frontier Communications' service quality have risen, according to state commission data obtained by Communications Daily. Regulators in 16 states provided data about 2015-19 complaints voluntarily or through Freedom of Information Act requests. Officials in some states with increasing complaints weren't surprised to see similar problems elsewhere. The telco said it works with state commissions to meet service quality metrics.
Connecticut “must deny” Frontier Communications’ bankruptcy reorganization application “as a matter of law,” the state’s Office of Consumer Counsel said in a Monday brief at the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in docket 20-04-31. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong (D) advised the same (see 2011230055). Denial could leave Frontier “customers, employees, and pensioners in an undesirable situation,” but approving it “without absolute, strong and enforceable conditions” would probably perpetuate “the operation of an antiquated telephone network that may be partially retrofitted to provide adequate services to select customers in areas chosen by Frontier’s management, who may or may not continue to be housed within Connecticut,” OCC said. “Despite this conundrum, the Applicants have failed to meet their burden of proof on any front.” Communications Workers of America suggested conditions requiring certain levels of Connecticut jobs, investment and service quality. Urging speedy OK, Frontier said it “made every effort to provide all of the information necessary for the Authority to evaluate the proposed change in control in a thorough and comprehensive manner.”
Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) responded briefly to 911 errors at the District of Columbia Office of Unified Communications. “Certainly it’s not OK if any of our systems failed,” she told reporters. “We always thoroughly investigate any problem and make every effort to fix it and to fix it immediately.” Bowser told a reporter she would get back to him on whether the city would investigate a June 5 incident where a 911 operator apparently entered the wrong address for a 59-year-old woman in cardiac arrest, delaying arrival of emergency responders. The woman later died. We reported last week on that and other 911 calls with dispatcher errors that we received information on under a D.C. Freedom of Information Act request, and we have additional requests pending. “I don’t have anything else to say about it right now. I will, but I’m not prepared to talk about it right now,” Bowser said Monday. The mayor’s office didn’t comment further Tuesday. Later that day, Office of Unified Communications Director Karima Holmes offered her "most sincere apology to the family for our call-taker error." The family's "experience with our 911 system at the point of their most urgent need was not in keeping with our commitment to callers and District residents," Holmes said in an emailed statement. "Last summer after this incident, we conducted a full investigation of this case and the handling of this call did not meet our performance standard. Broader efforts are now underway to address call-taker errors including a committed partnership with DC Fire and EMS in which we are collectively working to ensure that every 911 caller receives the help they need in the most efficient and timely manner possible."
Connecticut should reject Frontier Communications’ bankruptcy reorganization, said state Attorney General William Tong (D) in a Monday brief at the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). The record fails to show that Frontier meets statutory requirements for approval, that the company has "the suitability and responsibility to provide safe, adequate or reliable service to the public, or that the transaction is in the public interest,” Tong wrote. PURA should impose conditions if it says yes, said Tong. “Frontier refused to make any commitments to ensure local control, continued capital investment in plant and operation or maintaining its corporate headquarters in Connecticut.” At minimum, include a “most-favored nation” clause so Connecticut can benefit from conditions in other states, the AG said. Minnesota's AG last week sought to get the same Frontier concessions as other states (see 2011200040). Removing more than $10 billion of debt and nearly $1 billion in annual interest obligations will let the carrier invest in network and operations and continue to compete in Connecticut and 24 other states, a company spokesperson emailed Monday: The telco got OKs in 11 states and looks "forward to addressing all appropriate issues in our few remaining approval states, including Connecticut."
San Francisco will review and respond in court to a T-Mobile lawsuit testing federal deemed-granted rules, a spokesperson for City Attorney Dennis Herrera said Friday. In a complaint (in Pacer) Wednesday at U.S. District Court in San Francisco, T-Mobile sought a declaratory ruling affirming deemed-granted status of 16 applications to modify wireless facilities. The carrier said it filed 27 applications between June 24 and Aug. 14 to modify facilities in ways it described as "minor, frequently involving only swapping existing antennas and perhaps adding a small number of new antennas and associated equipment to existing rooftop installations.” T-Mobile said the upgrades are especially needed due to COVID-19 showing the importance of 5G and distance learning. Section 6409(a) of the Spectrum Act requires the city to act within 60 days, but it hadn't by late October, T-Mobile alleged. The carrier notified the city Oct. 20 that the applications were deemed granted, but since then, San Francisco issued permits for only 11, leaving 16 still unresolved, it said. It may be the first formal action by a wireless company on deemed-granted in California, emailed Tellus Venture Associates President Steve Blum, a consultant for local governments. The case will clarify what the term means “as a practical matter,” he said. “In theory, T-Mobile could have just started construction. Instead, they've taken it to federal court,” which probably will “result in a preemptive ruling that sets the de facto rules" for California, he said. Best Best’s Gail Karish noted the applications all involve changes to rooftop facilities. Local authorities and carriers often disagree how FCC rules for eligible facilities requests (EFRs) apply to rooftop facilities, and if “proposed modifications actually qualify for treatment as EFRs, or should be categorized as a different type of application with a longer FCC shot clock,” said the telecom lawyer for local governments.
The California Public Utilities Commission partly modified its T-Mobile/Sprint OK at a virtual meeting Thursday. Commissioners unanimously voted for a consent agenda that included a proposed decision in docket A.18-07-011 to grant the carrier’s request for more time to comply with network deployment and performance conditions in the April order but reject challenges to conditions to hire 1,000 more employees and comply with the agency’s CalSpeed program. T-Mobile earlier praised the part of the proposed decision granting relief (see 2010190014). The carrier didn’t comment Thursday.
Frontier Communications promised to pay more when it fails to quickly resolve outages in California. Its Wednesday brief at the California Public Utilities Commission also promised more fiber, to get clearance of its bankruptcy reorganization in docket A.20-05-010. Frontier pledged a plan to improve its performance restoring outages within 24 hours, and for three years will double how much it pays or invests when it fails to meet the state standard. The CPUC currently requires carriers that miss metrics to pay a fine or promise to invest twice as much as the penalty. If the telco faces a “penalty of $1.2 million, Frontier will pay $2.4 million in a penalty or propose an investment of $4.8M in lieu of the penalty,” the carrier explained. Frontier would also provide a $5 daily customer credit for outages lasting longer than one day, it said. It promised to bring fiber-to-the-premise to at least 150,000 more California locations within four years and to fulfill commitments from a 2016 settlement on buying Verizon assets, including to expand broadband to 840,000 locations by end of 2022. The Communications Workers of America, The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office (PAO) urged conditions. CWA sought conditions requiring Frontier maintain current California workforce, reduce reliance on outside contractors and develop an enforceable service improvement plan that includes expanding broadband. TURN proposed pricing and broadband buildout conditions. The consumer group said the CPUC should require the company to invest in upgrading networks with poor service quality and to increase speed and performance of existing and planned broadband deployments. PAO sought conditions on jobs, broadband deployment and service quality, including to increase workforce numbers to at least meet Frontier's national ratio of customers-to-employees in three years and to require 25/3 Mbps for certain areas. Reorg is necessary to comply with broadband commitments in the telco's 2015 pact with the California Emerging Technology Fund, cautioned CETF.
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska voted 5-0 Wednesday to propose regulations and seek comment in its telecom deregulation rulemaking that responds to 2019 law SB-83 (see 2008260048). Staff will likely release the notice by Friday, said Common Carrier Specialist David Parrish at the RCA’s virtual meeting. It would give parties 30 days to comment, probably making the deadline a few days before Christmas, Parrish said.