Texas Public Utility Commission members voted 5-0 to clear Lumen’s CenturyLink to deregulate 20 exchanges (see 2209210014). The PUC also removed a rural exemption for the 20 markets, said the PUC order posted Thursday in docket 53611.

The California Public Utilities Commission extended by two weeks comment deadlines on a report about network outages and the information the FCC requires in its automated reporting management information system. “To allow for additional time to consider the subpoena request made by AT&T and Frontier” Communications, comments are now due Oct. 24, replies Nov. 7, CPUC Administrative Law Judge Thomas Glegola ruled Thursday in docket R.22-03-016. The ALJ previously extended comments (see 2209150032).

The West Virginia Public Service Commission should resume probing Frontier Communications service quality, PSC staff said in a petition Tuesday. The PSC should reopen the statewide investigation (docket 18-0291-T-P) rather than review local complaints from Kanawha (docket 22-0628-T-P) and McDowell counties (docket 22-0791-T-P), staff said. The PSC required Frontier service quality reporting last year in response to a state audit in the service quality docket that staff now seeks to reopen (see 2101150018). Staff noted a recent increase in Frontier service-quality issues statewide. Frontier should file an action plan within 45 days on how it plans to reduce extended outages of its copper network and increased customer complaints "to a more reasonable level," and how it will ensure "batteries in remote terminals are kept in working order." Frontier should file status reports every 60 days after submitting the plan, staff said. The company didn’t comment Wednesday.

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission could decide Tuesday to pause or shut down a rehearing of LTD Broadband’s denied eligible telecom carrier designation, said an agenda for the PUC’s Oct. 11 meeting. LTD wants to suspend the state proceeding while it seeks to reverse the FCC rejecting the company’s long-form application for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support. South Dakota’s telecom association wants the PUC to deny LTD’s request and instead close docket TC21-001 (see 2209200073). The PUC will meet at 1:30 p.m. CDT.

More than 1 million New York households enrolled in the federal affordable connectivity program, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said Wednesday. About 30% of eligible New York households subscribe, the governor’s office said. With ACP and “and a multi-agency outreach effort in New York State, we're connecting more eligible households to broadband subsidies than anywhere else in the nation,” Hochul said.

California commissioners won’t vote Thursday on a connections-based mechanism for state USF contributions. Seeking further review, California Public Utilities Commission President Alice Reynolds delayed until Oct. 20 a draft to assess state public purpose program fees based on a carrier’s number of access lines (see 2209230031), showed the Thursday meeting’s hold list, as revised Tuesday. The CPUC withdrew a state LifeLine item from the meeting Monday (see 2210040037). Commissioners still plan to vote Thursday on an item setting eligibility criteria and administrative processes for a pilot $1 million digital divide grant program for community-based organizations (Resolution T-17770). Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma withdrew the LifeLine item, Administrative Law Judge Stephanie Wang emailed the docket R.20-02-008 service list Wednesday. "Further deliberation is underway."

Some telecom companies disagreed with cattlemen and corn growers on whether the Nebraska Public Service Commission should include a matching requirement in rules to implement the state’s 2022 Precision Agriculture Infrastructure Grant Act. Nebraska plans to fund upcoming PRO-AG grants through the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The PSC shouldn’t require a match for at least the first two years since the program is for "the most rural and cost-prohibitive locations in the state,” Paige Wireless said in comments posted Tuesday in docket BEAD-1. Not requiring matching will encourage more participation, though the commission could give preference to projects that offer a match, said Hamilton Telephone, Nebraska Central Telephone and Reinke Manufacturing in joint comments. Nebraska agriculture associations including for cattlemen, corn growers, and dairy and pork producers supported matches similar to what's required by the Nebraska Broadband Bridge Program -- 25% for high-cost areas and 50% for other areas. Require at least a 25% match since projects are in unserved areas, the Nebraska Rural Broadband Alliance said. The state law doesn't allow funding for ILEC fiber, but projects "would wisely be leveraged with other fiber projects,” the alliance said. With 5G wireless "a game-changer for agriculture," grant eligibility should be technology neutral, commented CTIA: The PSC "should be thoughtful about any affordability requirements, and it may be prudent in the context of this agriculture-focused program not to impose any.” The state agriculture associations urged the PSC to give highest priority to areas that lack at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds and that haven't received federal broadband support. Not all precision agriculture applications require 100/20 Mbps, they cautioned. “If those speeds are an absolute requirement, that could be a significant limiting factor in the deployment of these grants.” Require projects to be completed in one year, while letting applicants seek one six-month extension, said the agriculture groups: Completed projects should be required to remain in service at least five years. The PSC should start the PRO-AG grant cycle within six months of the state receiving NTIA approval for BEAD dollars, they said.

Oklahoma USF (OUSF) stakeholders agreed to a $1.85 per-connection surcharge, said a settlement filed Monday at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (docket OSF2022-000045). With $82.5 million in contributions expected to be needed for OUSF in funding year 2022-23, plus a $20.5 million deficit balance, the state would have needed to assess a nearly 21% surcharge under the previous revenue-based mechanism, it said. Payments should start Dec. 15 based on the number of connections of each contributing provider Oct. 31, it said. The agreement included OUSF Administrator Mark Argenbright, the Oklahoma attorney general's office, CTIA, Cox, Windstream, Consolidated Communications and Atlas Telephone. Oklahoma implemented connections-based contribution last November.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D) submitted draft rules Saturday to implement the state’s privacy law, and scheduled a Feb. 1 partially virtual rulemaking hearing. The Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) draft rules will be posted in the Colorado Register Oct. 10, said the Department of Regulatory Agencies’ rulemaking page. Colorado's draft rules “address several important issues that were notably absent from the draft California regulations, including regulations on profiling, data protection assessments … and the universal opt-out mechanism,” Ballard Spahr lawyers blogged. Draft rules appear more “principle-guided” than “hyper-prescriptive,” they said. Husch Blackwell’s David Stauss blogged that the draft rules “are a complex and lengthy set of regulations that, if adopted without substantial modification, will significantly expand the CPA’s requirements and require controllers to carefully consider their compliance obligations.” After the Feb. 1 hearing, the state will have 180 days to file adopted rules, which would take effect 20 days after publication in the Colorado Register, said Stauss.

The California Public Utilities Commission won’t vote Thursday on a state LifeLine proposed decision (PD) that raised concerns for carriers. The CPUC withdrew the item from this week’s meeting, a hold list showed Monday, after the agency twice delayed scheduled votes (see 2209150032). Verizon asked the CPUC last month to withdraw or substantially change the proposal in docket R.20-02-008 to reduce California LifeLine subsidies when total federal monthly support applied to a LifeLine plan is more than $9.25 (see 2209090047). “It's most likely that the Commission had some changes or additions to the PD that are going to take a little bit of time to write, or that are substantive enough that it makes sense to issue a new PD,” emailed Paul Goodman, Center for Accessible Technology legal counsel. The CPUC didn’t comment. CPUC members still plan to vote Thursday on a draft to assess state USF fees based on a carrier’s number of access lines (see 2209230031).