A California proposal to require 72-hour backup power at many cellsites would help in wildfires and public safety power shutoffs, local government officials told us this week. The California Public Utilities Commission may vote July 16 on a proposed decision giving wireless providers 12 months to deploy generators in tier 2 and 3 high-fire-threat districts (see 2006110071). Generators that last days are better than batteries that last hours, and localities don't mind giving some leeway to industry in places where deploying is difficult, the local officials said.
Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority “should be concerned” that a Frontier Communications internal policy may be causing unreasonable delays to pole attachments, the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel commented Monday. PURA received comments that day in docket 19-01-52 on a NetSpeed-Frontier dispute about the bigger company's requirements on where third parties may attach facilities on poles. NetSpeed complained Frontier’s policy lets the company reserve the lowest spots for its own attachments, ban attachers from placing theirs lower, and assess charges including for relocating Frontier and other attachments. OCC and NetSpeed agreed PURA should consider the issue as part of a broader investigation of pole attachment. Frontier’s practice isn’t “grounded in safety and engineering principles,” NetSpeed commented. Many states with pole-attachment jurisdiction “expressly found that reserving the lowest point on the pole for the telephone company is unjustified or placed a substantial burden on the pole owner to justify such practices on a case by case basis,” it said. The New England Cable and Telecommunications Association agreed Frontier should “follow reasonable, non-discriminatory attachment positioning practices that will promote competition and broadband deployment in Connecticut.” The telco said it’s “standard and accepted industry practice for ILECs such as Frontier to maintain the lowest position on utility poles,” for “public safety and efficient and cost-effective management of pole attachments.” The pole owner said it knows of no other state that prevents the practice: “Permitting third party licensees to choose where to place their facilities on the pole would both erode Frontier’s ownership interests and its ability to manage the poles.”
Louisiana legislators are trying again on a bill to spur rural broadband by electric cooperatives, after Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) vetoed a bill last week that he argued would restrict broadband access in violation of the 1996 Telecom Act. Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley advised against SB-406’s restrictions in a Zoom videoconference a few weeks ago with the Louisiana governor’s broadband commission and state Sen. Beth Mizell (R), the NARUC president told us Tuesday.
State utility commissioners must bring the “same sense of urgency” to communications that they have for grid modernization, in the wake of COVID-19, District of Columbia Public Service Commission Chairman Willie Phillips said Monday on a Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners webinar ahead of MACRUC’s June 22-24 virtual meeting. “We all woke up during COVID-19 and we realized there are so many institutions” including communications “that are essential that we have taken for granted,” Phillips said. A state, local and federal plan is needed, said the D.C. PSC chairman: “It has to be a priority on every level.” MACRUC members shared how their agencies adapted to the new normal, including through virtual meetings and electronic filings. Working from home probably will continue at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission after the pandemic, said Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille. The PUC launched a work-from-home pilot for some staff in January; COVID-19 forced the state commission to widely adopt the policy two months later. “I don't know that you can put that genie back in the bottle,” she said. Only 17 of 500 Pennsylvania PUC employees are unable work from home, due to the nature of their jobs, she said. Iowa Utilities Board’s Nick Wagner noted, “We’ve all learned a little about IT.” Protests about racial justice are also affecting state commissions, MACRUC members said. “It has opened a lot of eyes across the country,” said New Jersey Board of Public Utilities member Joe Fiordaliso. Brown Dutrieuille noted the PUC will continue its work to encourage more supplier diversity. Phillips said, "What I've been trying to do mostly is just listen.”
California privacy advocate Alastair Mactaggart laughs at claims he would “sabotage” the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) with the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), he testified at an Assembly Privacy Committee hearing livestreamed Friday. Mactaggart sponsored the CPRA, a ballot initiative expected to appear in November (see 2006040046), and in 2018, he sponsored a ballot initiative that never went to vote because he struck a deal that led to the legislature quickly passing the CCPA. Privacy groups gave the CPRA a lukewarm reception because it includes some exemptions sought by businesses (see 2005080037). “If the criticism is that I talked to Google and Facebook and Experian, well, guilty as charged,” Mactaggart said at the hearing. He also spoke with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy advocates, he said. Mactaggart met with the California Chamber of Commerce and made some requested changes, testified CalChamber Policy Advocate Shoeb Mohammed. The chamber has no formal position on the initiative, but Mohammed warned the initiative could increase compliance costs. CompTIA Senior Director-State Government Affairs Laura Curtis said, “The ballot initiative adds complexity to an already complex law before businesses and consumers even have an opportunity to become familiar with the CCPA.” Consumer Reports likes that the ballot initiative would make it harder for the legislature to weaken the privacy law, said Policy Analyst Maureen Mahoney. The CPRA needs 685,533 verified signatures to qualify for the November ballot; it has 420,744 verified so far of 931,000 submitted, said a slide presented by Mactaggart at the hearing. The real estate developer sued California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) Monday for failing to immediately notify county officials to start the verification process. “We believe the Secretary of State did not fulfill their ministerial duty to notify counties that they had to submit their random sample results by June 25,” the statutory deadline to qualify measures for November, emailed a spokesperson for Mactaggart’s group, Californians for Consumer Privacy. Padilla notified counties May 14, giving them until June 26, said the complaint at the California Superior Court in Sacramento. Mactaggart sought immediate judicial relief. It “remains to be seen how the Court may interpret the term ‘immediately’ and whether it will agree to (or even has the power to) order the Secretary of State to require county registrars to complete the certification process sooner than statutorily allowed,” McGuireWoods attorneys blogged Wednesday. Padilla didn’t comment now.
National 911 groups will explore how operators could field calls from home, heads of the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA) said in interviews last week. Operators began working remotely in Alexandria, Virginia, when the coronavirus struck the U.S. Most public safety answering points (PSAPs) don’t allow that, despite widespread safety concerns of having call takers working near each other indoors (see 2003180033).
The California Public Utilities Commission has authority to require 72-hours backup power at wireless facilities, CPUC President Marybel Batjer said in a proposed decision Thursday in docket R.18-03-011. Wireless providers would have 12 months from the decision’s effective date to make it so, she said. The proposal would permit diesel generation, but wireless providers must “explore ways to transition to renewable generation for backup power,” it said. The wireless industry resisted a backup power mandate, with some disputing California wireless authority (see 2004060061). The CPUC “has long held that wireless service providers are public utilities,” argued the agency about its wireless jurisdiction. “As the wireless market developed, the Commission and the Courts continued to find and uphold Commission jurisdiction over wireless telecommunications utilities to protect consumers. The Commission’s jurisdiction extends to the facilities wireless carriers rely upon to provision service.” The federal government can't preempt the state's police power over public health and safety, and there can't be a conflict preemption argument without FCC backup power rules, it said. The CPUC may vote on the item as soon as its July 16 meeting, said Chief Administrative Law Judge Anne Simon in a cover page to the proposal. CTIA and the Wireless Infrastructure Association didn’t comment.
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska might have to push forward uncertainly in telecom matters until it meets resistance, Chairman Bob Pickett said at one in a series of summer meetings about the RCA's telecom jurisdiction after 2019 deregulation law SB-83 (see 2005130039). There should be no confusion about what authority the agency retains, said Alaska Telecom Association Executive Director Christine O'Connor in an interview.
Businesses dissatisfied by final California privacy rules might sue the state, but an expected November ballot vote on another privacy proposal and other factors could discourage them, business privacy attorneys said this week. The Software & Information Industry Association raised constitutional concerns with the California Consumer Privacy Act and regulations released Tuesday. SIIA General Counsel Chris Mohr told us Thursday it’s “not in a litigation posture at this time.” Rumored suits probably would be a long, uphill fight, said Perkins Coie’s Dominique Shelton Leipzig on an Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) webinar Wednesday.
Businesses will soon have to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act despite calls for delay and speculation the state DOJ would miss an important procedural deadline. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) submitted final rules for implementing CCPA just before Monday night’s Office of Administrative Law deadline (see 2006020039). Final text included no substantial changes to regulations from a March revised draft submitted for OAL review.