Consolidated Communications would get more pricing flexibility in Vermont under a proposed order Monday. The Vermont Public Utility Commission proposed a three-year incentive regulation plan for Consolidated Communications to replace an IRP that expires this year. "With appropriate conditions to protect consumers ... alternative regulation will provide benefits to Vermont ratepayers,” said the draft order in docket 21-4060-PET. “Competitive alternatives for voice services have increased in Vermont since the Commission authorized the first IRP in 2000.” Wireless and VoIP competition increased "and Consolidated is now a minority provider in many areas, but not all,” it said. Under the new IRP, Consolidated could set its own basic local exchange service (BLES) rates “in areas where competition is sufficient to keep prices at just and reasonable levels,” said the proposed order. "To protect against a sudden increase in the rates for basic services, the Successor IRP includes stepped limits on rate increases over the three-year period of the Successor IRP." The PUC expects "the freedom provided in the Successor IRP will be an incentive for Consolidated to invest in its network and offer new and improved services to remain a viable option in competitive areas, resulting in benefits to its Vermont customers in both regulated and nonregulated municipalities,” the draft said.

Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D) veto of a broadband grant process bill drew backlash from the California measure’s sponsor Monday. The telecom industry-supported bill (AB-2749) would have put a shot clock on California Public Utilities Commission reviews of California Advanced Services Fund broadband grant applications (see 2209300063). Newsom said the industry-supported bill would have delayed grants. “Without this bill, there is serious concern that the CPUC will fail to award all the funds by applicable federal deadlines, and may need to return funds to the federal government unspent,” said Sharon Quirk-Silva, Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee chairwoman, Monday. “Despite the Governor’s position on this bill, I am committed to maintaining strong oversight of the CPUC to ensure timely progress towards our shared goal of broadband for all.” In the same news release, Quirk-Silva’s office said the veto seemed like a win for the CPUC, “a controversial state agency which many critics have said the administration has been reluctant to reel in.” The CPUC didn’t comment by our deadline.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) cleared a social media bill and multiple broadband measures by Friday’s deadline to sign or veto bills from the state legislature. On Friday, Newsom signed SB-1056 to require social media platforms with at least 1 million monthly users to say if they have a mechanism for reporting violent posts. Also, he approved SB-884 to require the CPUC to establish an electric undergrounding program that requires telecom providers to put non-wireless infrastructure underground and pay proportionate costs; SB-717 to require a report about broadband deployment barriers on government-owned structures, private and public lands and buildings and public rights of way; and AB-1426 to clarify nonprofit religious organizations may get grants from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband adoption account. On Thursday, Newsom signed AB-2752 to clarify what data the California Public Utilities Commission must collect for mapping broadband access. Also last week, Newsom signed bills to make phone calls free for many incarcerated persons and vetoed an industry-supported bill to change the CPUC’s broadband grant review process (see 2209300063).

New Mexico should lower inmate calling rate caps, the state attorney general’s office commented Friday at the Public Regulation Commission. As part of proposed changes to inmate calling service (ICS) rules, the PRC is considering a proposal to 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. Proposed new rates “could provide substantial cost savings to the inmates and their families,” said the AG office in docket 20-00170-UT. ICS providers might seem “niche” but “can be essential lifelines for the incarcerated inmates, their families, and others seeking to maintain a connection to them during their confinement,” said the office: Yet there is "a long history of abusive rate practices" nationally. The existing 15-cent cap "at the time of implementation was one of the most progressive and proactive [ICS] calling rate structures in the country,” New Mexico PRC staff commented: Now the PRC is updating those rules to "keep pace with changes to ICS calling at the FCC." ICS Provider ViaPath said its rates are already below the existing cap. Simplify rate caps by eliminating distinctions between local, intraLATA and interLATA calls, it suggested. A proposal to cap per-call charges on collect calls at $1 is inconsistent with another proposed rule banning per-connection charges, noted Viapath: Delete the allowance for $1 charges. Securus urged the PRC "to ensure that the roles, responsibilities, and authorities of those involved in the provision of [ICS] services to incarcerated populations are clear and accurate and that any” rule changes “provide predictability, consistency, and finality” for providers. Leonard Law’s Stephen Raher, formerly general counsel of the Prison Policy Initiative, supported the PRC plan. It "would protect consumer prepaid accounts from forfeiture based on arbitrary ‘inactivity’ policies that many [companies] impose,” said Raher. "ICS carriers routinely seize consumer funds -- a practice that provides a substantial revenue stream for the provider, but without a corresponding benefit for the consumer.” Also, the proposed rule’s ban on charging duplicative ancillary service fees "addresses a problem that arises from imprecise language in existing FCC rules,” he said. Affordable rates will help keep incarcerated persons in touch with their attorneys, said the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. The lawyers supported allowing correctional institutions to switch off recording devices for inmate-attorney calls. A new California law will make many inmate calls there free (see 2209300063).

The California Public Utilities Commission may vote Nov. 3 on rule changes for the Broadband Infrastructure Account, the CPUC said Friday in docket R.20-08-021. The proposed decision would “implement recent legislation regarding project eligibility and other proposed modifications, including performance criteria and project challenges,” it said. The CPUC received comments on a staff proposal last summer (see 2207060062 and 2206280032). AT&T and cable had expressed concern about the staff’s proposal to require applicants to freeze prices in project areas for at least five years. But under the draft, the CPUC would find “staff’s proposed modifications to the price commitment reasonable, given that grant recipients will be afforded the opportunity to request to raise prices for reasons outside of their control.” The CPUC doesn’t find proposed challenge process rules "so onerous as to effectively preclude entities from submitting a project challenge,” said the draft, disagreeing with cable and wireline industry comments. Since the process would require more information from challengers, the CPUC wouldn’t take up the Public Advocates Office’s recommendation to shorten the time frame for submitting challenges, it said.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission declared a contested case on a commission order to extend Lumen’s price plan by nine months while investigating if it should be modified to support the public interest. Lumen last week sought a hearing on the Sept. 23 order, which also directed the carrier to set up a 24/7 dedicated customer service line (docket UM 1908). In a Thursday order, Chief Administrative Law Judge Nolan Moser sought responses to Lumen’s motion by Oct. 5, with Lumen’s reply due Oct. 11. The ALJ set a possible schedule for the proceeding in which a hearing would occur Nov. 21-22 and the commission would reach a decision Dec. 20. The record doesn’t sufficiently support the Sept. 23 order, Lumen said in its hearing request: “In addition, there are significant issues as to whether the Order is lawful.”

Comments on a VoIP rulemaking at the California Public Utilities Commission are due Oct. 17, said Administrative Law Judge Camille Watts-Zagha Friday. Replies are due Oct. 31, said the ruling, which was emailed to the service list for docket R.22-08-008. CPUC commissioners in August cleared the rulemaking to consider changes to licensing requirements and other VoIP obligations (see 2208250029 and 2208190030).

Texas’ social media law shouldn’t take effect, with Supreme Court review possibly in the cards, NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) told the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. In an unopposed motion Thursday in case 21-51178, the web groups said they plan to seek a writ of certiorari at the Supreme Court, which is also considering a petition to review a similar Florida law (see 2209220001). Defendant Texas doesn’t oppose a stay if the plaintiffs don’t seek an extension to file the cert petition, CCIA and NetChoice said: “Granting a stay will prevent irreparable harm to Plaintiffs’ member companies while the Supreme Court reviews the vital constitutional issues raised by legislation such as HB-20.” Supreme Court review is plainly merited due to a split between the 5th and 11th circuits, they said.

The New Hampshire Energy Department released a final draft of one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) and other pole attachment rule changes (docket RUL 22-001). OTMR rules proposed in Wednesday’s draft “are as close as possible to the language and format contained in the cited FCC rules, and we would strongly prefer to preserve both the language and format of the FCC rules … even where they may be different from what the Rulemaking Manual would otherwise prescribe,” wrote department Commissioner Jared Chicoine in a Wednesday cover letter. “We believe that the regulated community is familiar with and understands those specific rules provisions, which are in effect in many other states and jurisdictions in the region and across the country.”

The Oregon Public Utility suspended Lumen’s ability to raise the rates it charges for service to residential customers while the agency investigates service quality issues reported by customers in Jacksonville, Oregon, and surrounding areas and safety-related issues regarding Lumen poles. “Every Oregonian should have access to safe, adequate, and reasonably continuous telephone service,” said Commissioner Letha Tawney Wednesday: “The PUC’s investigation was launched as these families in the Jacksonville area continue to experience service quality and reliability issues with their landline phone and internet service.” Lumen declined comment.