Alabama awarded $148.3 million for last-mile broadband through the U.S. Treasury Capital Projects Fund, the governor's office said Tuesday. The state awarded 66 grants to 16 internet service providers across 48 counties, it said. Grant winners included AT&T ($7 million), Charter Communications ($44.8 million), Mediacom ($22.8 million) and Central Alabama Electric Cooperative ($22 million). The last-mile awards follow $188.5 million in middle-mile grants announced by Gov. Kay Ivey (R) earlier this month (see 2402050059).

Arizona Corporation Commission staff warned Tuesday that the Arizona Universal Service Fund (AUSF) could exhaust its money unless the commission increases contribution rates. Commissioners could vote March 12 on a staff-proposed order to raise fees. AUSF administrator Solix told commission staff “that although there were enough funds collected to fund the AUSF for January, February and March 2024, Solix has calculated that it's anticipated, by the end of April, the AUSF fund balance would be depleted and that the fund will not be able to pay the Commission-approved and contractual obligations to [Frontier Communications] and Solix, respectively, beginning in May 2024,” said a Tuesday (docket RT-00000H-97-0137). For basic local exchange and wireless service providers that interconnect with the public switched network, staff recommended increasing the monthly surcharge to 3.4 cents per access line, up from 2 cents, and to 34 cents per interconnecting trunk line, up from 20 cents. For intrastate toll service providers, Arizona commission staff recommended increasing the monthly surcharge to 45% of revenue, up from 34.1%. The new rates would start April 1 and would result in a $200,000 fund balance by year-end, a “reasonable level” that would “potentially eliminate the need to revise the AUSF surcharge rates again for 2024,” staff said. Arizona commissioners declined raising AUSF contribution rates in December (see 2312050032). Frontier is the only company receiving AUSF high-cost support.

Municipal interests pushed back on a bill before the Missouri Senate Tuesday clarifying that streaming content is exempted from paying video franchise fees. In a Senate Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment Committee hearing on SB-947, Missouri Municipal League lobbyist Shanon Hawk of Armstrong Teasdale said municipalities started working with the Senate about eight years ago on updates to the state's public right-of-way rules, and streaming was part of that much larger conversation. She said subsequent updates included a promise that there would be a state task force on the future of right-of-way taxation, but that task force authorization expired in 2023 without ever meeting. Confusion remains about who must get a state franchise as a video service provider and municipalities are still trying to get right-of-way updates. ROWs are a financial liability for municipalities, as they carry maintenance and upkeep costs, said Pat Kelly, Municipal League of Metro St. Louis executive director. If streaming services don't pay using infrastructure in the ROW, taxpayers must, he said. Republican sponsor of the bill, Holly Thompson Rehder, said she had pushed for similar legislation when she worked as head of government relations for Galaxy Cablevision. She said streaming services weren't being considered when the state's Video Services Providers Act was passed, and that legislation never intended for streamers to be included under its franchise-fee obligations. She said franchise fees are intended to pay for actual access to rights of way. Levying a franchise fee on streamers is akin to levying such a fee on a cable provider's premium channels like HBO, she said. Representatives of Dish Network, DirecTV and Netflix all briefly testified in favor of the legislation. Backers of the bill repeatedly referred to franchise fees on streaming series as a tax that would be borne by those streamers' subscribers. Rehder said fee increases ultimately get passed to subscribers, and the clarification would prevent "our constituents from getting a tax increase, because that's exactly what this would be for them." The Municipal League's Kelly disputed that, calling it a fee. Similar legislation, HB-2057, has been introduced in the Missouri House.

The Wisconsin legislature passed a bill last week repealing a tax on personal property of telephone companies. The Assembly voted 90-7 Thursday and the Senate voted 30-2 Tuesday approving SB-323. Also on Thursday, the Wisconsin Assembly passed a bill that would require wireless carriers to provide device location information to law enforcement without a warrant if the subscriber consents and the company believes disclosure could prevent a person’s death or injury or if it receives a written law enforcement request stating that disclosure is needed to respond to an emergency call or situation involving possible death or serious physical injury. AB-960 also would give wireless providers immunity from criminal liability for such disclosures. The similar SB-890 cleared a Senate committee earlier this month (see 2402090055).

An Ohio court can and should call Google Search a common carrier, the state argued Friday. "Ohio common carrier law needs no expansion … Google Search meets each and every criterion with no need to resort to the creative interpretation that Google proposes." In a separate opposition brief, Google protested that it’s nothing like a common carrier: "Google is not a 'dumb pipe' or 'mere conduit.' Ohio and Google responded to each other’s January cross-motions for summary judgment in case 21-CV-H-06-0274 at the Ohio Court of Common Pleas, Delaware County (see 2401260074). Reply briefs are due March 15 and trial is set for Sept. 3 under the court’s schedule. Judge James Schuck refused to dismiss Ohio’s lawsuit in May 2022, ruling that Ohio “stated a cognizable claim” that Google could be a common carrier (see 2205260057). The Ohio Chamber of Commerce supported the company in a Thursday amicus brief, arguing that Ohio’s attempt to regulate the search company would be “anti-business.” Concerns about how a big tech company participates in public discourse "provide no basis for making a novel exception to well-established common carrier tenets,” wrote the chamber.

Florida’s proposed social media ban for kids younger than 16 will head to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The House voted 108-7 Thursday to concur with Senate changes to HB-1, which also would require age verification to block kids less than 18 from pornography online. DeSantis said he has concerns about the bill restricting parents from allowing kids to have social media accounts (see 2402220051). The Senate passed HB-1 by a 23-14 vote earlier Thursday.

AT&T’s nationwide wireless outage last week shows why California regulators shouldn’t relieve the company of carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations, Communications Workers of America said. COLR requires AT&T to make landlines available to anyone who requests them across the state. The hourslong wireless outage (see 2402220058) showed that landlines remain important, CWA District 9 Vice President Frank Arce said Thursday. As such, the California Public Utilities Commission should reject “AT&T’s attempt to cut service to our most vulnerable residents,” he said. An AT&T spokesperson responded Friday, “We are not canceling landline service in California, and none of our California customers will lose access to voice service or 911 service.” The carrier said it's focused on upgrading customers to fiber and wireless technologies that consumers increasingly demand. “No customer will be disconnected, and we’re working with the remaining consumers who use traditional landline service to upgrade to newer technologies.” AT&T is pushing for quick CPUC action on its COLR relief petition (see 2402210038). The carrier disclosed in a Thursday ex parte notice that it plans to meet virtually Tuesday with aides to Commissioner Karen Douglas.

The Kansas House supported a 911 administration shakeup in a 117-3 vote Thursday. HB-2690 would replace the Kansas 911 Coordinating Council with a state 911 board. Also, it would allow counties to contract with each other to consolidate public safety answering points and require transfer of 911 fees collected from monthly phone bills and prepaid wireless sales to various state 911 funds at the state treasury. Also Thursday, the House unanimously passed a bill to end a recurring state 911 audit (see 2402220062).

NTIA cleared three more states, plus Puerto Rico, to start their challenge process in the broadband, equity, access and deployment program, the agency said in a weekly update to its progress dashboard. NTIA approved BEAD initial plan volume 1 for Nebraska, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico, making 15 states and territories total, the agency said Wednesday. NTIA approved the second volume for only one state, Louisiana, two months ago (see 2312150047).

The Ohio Public Utilities Commission revised retail telecom service rules as part of a five-year review. All four commissioners supported the Ohio PUC order Wednesday. Staff had proposed nonsubstantive changes clarifying language and updating cross-references (see 2311010060).