The Wyoming Public Service Commission will keep a state surcharge for telecom relay services at four cents per access line, commissioners agreed 3-0 at a partially virtual Tuesday meeting. The commission adopted an order in docket 90000-172-XO-21 that will take effect Jan. 1. “We are on track to continue to draw down the cash reserve balance and hit the target … of 10 times the average monthly expenditures by the end of next year,” said TRS program consultant Lori Ceilinski. Revenue increased this year due to an increase in access lines, “which has been a little bit surprising to us” because they had been steadily declining for many years, she said. Expenditures that dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic “are coming back up,” she said.

New York state completed its first municipal broadband network through a $10 million pilot program under the state’s $1 billion ConnectAll program, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said Tuesday. The pilot, which uses fiber from New York Power Authority’s existing transmission system, is ahead of schedule, the governor’s office said. The project is expected to bring access to more than 2,000 previously unserved or underserved households and businesses in four municipalities, it said.

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission adopted proposed changes to inmate calling service (ICS) rules, including lowered rate caps (see 2212150009). Commissioners voted 4-0 at a partly virtual meeting Monday for the order that takes effect Jan. 18. Commissioner Joseph Maestas wasn’t present. The adopted order would reduce an existing cap of 15 cents per minute on intrastate rates to 12 cents for state prisons and 14 cents for large local jails (docket 20-00170-UT). It wouldn't allow a $1 fee for collect calls.

Lumen’s CenturyLink proposed giving wireless or satellite service subsidies to an estimated 600 Montana customers experiencing copper service problems. The carrier responded Monday to a Nov. 3 order in docket 2021.12.136 by the Montana Public Service Commission requiring the company to propose how to resolve a service-quality investigation. CenturyLink will subsidize eligible customers’ satellite or wireless service costs for one year, it said. The subsidy would include up to $100 monthly for monthly charges and cover any one-time non-recurring charges, it said. Eligible customers, who would have six months from the commission's order to elect to take the subsidy, would have to disconnect their CenturyLink wireline service upon activating the alternative service, it said. The carrier would send three notices directly to each eligible customer, it said. "Overall, CenturyLink’s service in Montana, including service provided over Anaconda and similar copper equipment, is reasonable, adequate, and reliable,” said the company, saying it "easily and consistently meets" the Montana PSC's rule that customer trouble reports not exceed six per 100 local access lines per month per exchange. "While CenturyLink disagrees with the assertion that the company’s network and services, taken as a whole, are unreasonable, inadequate, or unreliable, CenturyLink is respectful of the Commission’s concerns and is open to a reasonable settlement that meets the needs of all parties and Montana consumers,” it said. Also, the carrier proposed meeting with the state commission to discuss possible legislation to relax Montana's "80/20 rule," which requires carriers requesting broadband funding to contribute at least 20% of construction costs. "The effect of this '80/20' is to preclude carriers from seeking funding (and thus expanding broadband) to the most remote portions of the state where the costs of construction are the highest and customer density is the lowest,” it said. “There is simply no economically viable way for these communities to be served, even in the presence of hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding.”

Georgia Public Service Commissioners voted 5-0 at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday to approve an industry agreement to forgo the first biennial review of the state’s $1 pole attachment policy (see 2212150008). In December 2020, the Georgia Public Service Commission required that ISPs pay only $1 per pole annually for attaching to electric co-op infrastructure. Staff doesn’t object to the agreement signed by AT&T, the Georgia Cable Association and Georgia Electric Membership Corporation, said Patrick Reinhardt, Georgia PSC public utilities engineer.

The California Public Utilities Commission awarded $5.75 million in broadband technical assistance grants to 16 local governments, the CPUC said Monday. Each grant from the $50 million state fund is about $500,000 and can be used to reimburse localities for network design services for unserved areas. The CPUC announced grants from the program in October (see 2210210071). Applications may still be submitted, the agency said.

NTIA awarded Michigan more than $6.3 million in funding through the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program and Digital Equity Act Monday. Nearly $5 million will be used to develop the state's five-year BEAD action plan, and the remaining funding will be used to develop statewide digital equity plans, said a news release. "Today’s announcement will help us close digital equity gaps and pinpoint unconnected and underserved locations in Michigan," said Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist. The funding will "allow our office to begin the critical planning efforts needed to implement future federal investments creatively, efficiently, and transparently," said Michigan Chief Connectivity Officer Eric Frederick.

A state appeals court ordered the Oregon Public Utility Commission to reconsider an order denying payphone providers refunds from Lumen. The Northwest Public Communications Council (NPCC), a regional payphone provider association, asked the PUC to order Lumen to issue refunds for payphone rates that its predecessor Qwest charged payphone companies between 1996 and 2003, saying the charged rates didn’t comply with federal law. “The PUC's prior orders in this docket neither require nor preclude the requested refunds and … we cannot say whether state and federal law require the PUC to order the requested refunds,” Oregon Appeals Court Judge Darleen Ortega wrote in Wednesday’s decision (case A166810). “However, because we conclude that the PUC relied on factual findings that are not supported by substantial evidence, we reverse Order No. 17-473 and remand to the PUC for reconsideration.” The PUC hasn’t determined if the pre-2003 rates complied with federal law, said Ortega. “Under the applicable regulatory scheme, the PUC does not have discretion to simply ignore NPCC's allegations that Qwest's pre-2003 payphone rates violate section 276” of the 1996 Telecom Act, she said. “And if, after proper inquiry, the PUC finds that Qwest's pre-2003 payphone rates exceeded that allowed by federal law and amount to 'unjust and unreasonable exactions,' the PUC has a duty to protect ratepayers, including NPCC's members, by providing some appropriate remedy,” which “may include ordering refunds for overcharges.” The Oregon PUC "will be reviewing the order and will take appropriate action based on the court’s decision," a spokesperson said Monday. Lumen declined to comment.

Minnesota will award $67.6 million in broadband grants later this year through a funding round using $25 million from the state and $42.6 million from the federal government. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) opened a request for proposals (RFP) Monday. No single project may get more than $5 million. Applications are due March 2 and DEED will award grants win “early summer,” the department said. The state awarded about $100 million in broadband grants earlier this month (see 2212090014).

Monongahela Power and Potomac Edison filed an amended agreement with Frontier Communications in response to scrutiny from the West Virginia Public Service Commission about duplicative processes slowing pole-attachment application reviews (see 2212020048). Under the updated pact, the utility will perform the engineering review for both electric and communication spaces for jointly used poles, Mon Power said Thursday. “Frontier will not perform the engineering analysis on the application from a third-party [attacher], thus eliminating duplicative review and reducing costs and time to proposed third-party attachers.” The only exception is that Frontier will perform engineering for make-ready construction it must do to accommodate a new attachment, it said. Previous “agreements with Frontier’s predecessors are antiquated and do not reflect the current broadband market and dramatic increase in the number of entities desiring to attach to these poles,” the utility said. “Many of these agreements are from the 1980’s when generally if there were any attachments at all, it was the cable TV company.”