COVID-19 is showing that too many people lack broadband for telehealth in North Carolina, state officials said Tuesday on a web-based meeting of the Governor’s Task Force on Connecting North Carolina. Noelle Talley, deputy chief of staff to Gov. Roy Cooper (D), hopes “we can use the urgency and also the energy of this time to push to get more people connected.” Simply having internet available doesn’t mean quality is adequate, the state officials said. “It’s slow and it’s spotty, and for many people, it’s expensive,” said North Carolina Commerce Department Chief Deputy Secretary Liz Crabill, noting 800,000 filed for unemployment there. Crabill hopes for “renewed interest across the state” to upgrade broadband. The coronavirus gave an “unprecedented” opportunity to move telehealth forward, said Office of Rural Health Director Maggie Sauer. The state’s work on telehealth has “definitely been expedited” by COVID-19, agreed Rural Health Information Technology Program Manager Lakeisha Moore. Center for Rural Health Innovation Medical Director Steve North also sees opportunity with telehealth reaching a saturation point, but said it’s too bad it took a public health crisis to get most physicians to fit telehealth into their practice. Provide quality of care, not just access, he urged.
A Minnesota state senator floated a wireless bill Monday to loosen the small-cells law’s preemptions of local government and order a study on possible health and environmental effects of 5G RF emissions. SF-4534 by David Dibble (D) would let municipalities require telecom right-of-way users to give notice to property owners adjacent to new facilities. Localities could assess fees for replacing small cells and micro wireless facilities strung on cables. The bill would remove fee caps, requiring charges be “reasonable.” It would remove a deemed-granted provision for when governments miss shot clocks to review applications. Minnesota cities support removing deemed-granted, a particularly challenging policy while local governments respond to COVID-19, said League of Minnesota Cities lobbyist Daniel Lightfoot in an interview. Cities should be allowed to charge reasonable fees, he said. League members have heard RF health concerns from residents but it has no position on the proposed study because the FCC bans cities from denying applications on that basis, he said. The bill is potentially controversial with the wireless industry and may be challenging to move so late in the legislative session, Lightfoot said. The bill's prospects seem dim without a House companion and only three weeks left in session, said a Wireless Infrastructure Association spokesperson. CTIA declined comment.
The FCC is seeking to better assess emergency communications reliability by adding data fields to the network outage reporting and 911 reliability certification systems, the Public Safety Bureau said. On an FCBA CLE webinar, also Monday, T-Mobile officials raised some related cautions. North Carolina, meanwhile, hasn’t faced major challenges with emergency-call delivery amid the coronavirus but can't “let our guard down,” the state’s 911 Board Executive Director Pokey Harris said in a Thursday interview.
States are directing broadband funds to COVID-19 response, but many others lack that ability, said state commissioners, legislators and broadband officials in recent interviews. The pandemic increased states’ urgency to close broadband gaps and could lead to policy changes, they said.
The FCC Wireline Bureau denied more time for comments on public safety aspects of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s Mozilla v. FCC net neutrality decision. California’s Santa Clara County, Los Angeles, New York City and others sought the extension for comments that were due Monday, after a 21-day extension granted by the FCC (see 2004170029). The April 16 request citing COVID-19 was too late; rules say extension motions must be filed at least seven days before filings’ due date, said Monday's order. “It is not plausible that Requestors first became aware of their purported need for additional time less than seven days before the deadline for initial comments on April 20.” Democratic FCC commissioners sought extra time. "Local governments and public safety officials have asked for more time to comment so that they rightfully can focus on responding to the public health emergency at hand," said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "It’s shameful that the FCC did not heed their request.” Commissioner Geoffrey Starks tweeted, "We should've done better." It's "shameful" the FCC doesn't "think that the pandemic is enough of an emergency to provide more time for first responders to file comments about how the Commission can ensure that first responders can serve the public in emergencies like pandemics," said Benton Institute for Broadband and Society Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman. Sunday, the California Public Utilities Commission supported a 60-day extension to comments. The record wouldn’t be complete without Santa Clara County since the court specifically referenced its concerns, but COVID-19 may limit its ability to weigh in, the CPUC said in docket 17-108. “These parties should not have to choose between protecting public health and safety and participating in this proceeding.” The FCC declined to comment beyond the order.
Internet regulation has a good shot following the COVID-19 pandemic, said California Public Utilities Commission officials Friday on a Santa Clara University High Tech Law Institute webinar. The virus forcing people to stay at home shows the internet is a “basic utility” that “needs to be regulated,” said Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves. Sen. Scott Wiener (D), author of California’s still-unenforced net neutrality law, rallied supporters to keep fighting despite litigation.
T-Mobile/Sprint got its final OK, as California Public Utilities Commissioners voted 5-0 Thursday for a revised proposal that reasserted the agency’s authority to review the deal and adjusted some conditions (see 2004150058). The Utility Reform Network (TURN) said it's disappointed the CPUC didn’t punish carriers for closing their deal two weeks before the scheduled vote.
The California Public Utilities Commission reasserted authority to review T-Mobile/Sprint, while tweaking some conditions the carriers opposed, in a revised proposed decision released Wednesday (see 2004150050). Commissioners plan to vote Thursday. T-Mobile and Sprint “have California wireless subsidiaries that are public utility telephone corporations under state law, and subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission,” the CPUC said. The agency rejected the carriers’ motion to withdraw their wireline application, plus Sprint’s letter relinquishing its wireline certificate, both of which the carriers used to lay a foundation for closing without California OK. The CPUC removed specific backup power obligations and requirements that 5G commitments extend to 2030. It added a condition that 93% of California's population have 300 Mbps download speeds in 2024. The agency also tweaked conditions for Lifeline, a Boost pilot program and CalSpeed testing. The edits “are more meaningful in what they do not say, more so than the relatively small changes,” emailed The Utility Reform Network Managing Director-San Diego Christine Mailloux. The commission “held steady in its correct and critical position that it has the full authority under the California Public Utilities Code to review all aspects of this merger and to impose conditions.” The companies completed their deal and began integrating in states other than California.
State regulators will scrutinize Frontier Communications as the midsize carrier goes through bankruptcy, commissioners told us Wednesday. Some felt reassured by the company pledging uninterrupted service and no change to selling some systems in the U.S. Northwest and West.
The California Public Utilities Commission plans to act soon on COVID-19 responses via state LifeLine and the California Advanced Services Fund. “Swift action by the Commission in response to issues that have a nexus with COVID-19 impact mitigation is appropriate,” CPUC Administrative Law Judge Brian Stevens wrote in a ruling emailed Monday to the service list in R.12-10-012. The Communications Division will mail a proposal to be voted on by commissioners modifying the CASF adoption account, said Stevens. Later this month, the agency will release a proposed decision on emergency LifeLine measures for COVID-19, said assigned Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma in a Monday scoping memo in docket R.20-02-008, detailing a schedule for broader LifeLine changes. “This process will reflect our continued commitment to ensure access to voice services across the state, as federal subsidies for voice services decline, and our policy goals for increasing program participation and access to broadband services,” Shiroma wrote. Fund authorizations “will require ... sufficient information from Program carriers.” The CPUC will weigh more funding to spur wireless carriers to meet or exceed federal Lifeline minimum broadband requirements, and “to incentivize carriers to provide broadband packages for wireline participants,” she said. Comments on the scoping memo are due May 4, replies May 26. The agency will host a status conference June 23, with comments due July 7, replies July 17. The CPUC plans to release a PD in August or September, voting at least 30 days later. Shiroma agreed with commenters who asked to priortize revamping the renewals process (see 2004060061). A working group will file a proposal to improve renewals in Q4 2020 or Q1 2021 and the CPUC will issue a proposed decision within 90 days. An external contractor will assess LifeLine Q3 2020-Q2 2021 to find ways to improve participation and renewals, and the commission plans to make a proposed decision on recommendations in Q4 2021, she said.