Minnesota’s broadband office opened a challenge process after receiving 135 applications for this year’s border-to-border broadband development grant program. Challenges to the applications are due Sept. 8, the office said Wednesday.
Google Fiber could soon expand fiber-to-the-home to more states, CEO Dinni Jain blogged Wednesday. The company is in talks with city leaders in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska and Nevada, said Jain. Google Fiber said in July it would expand to Mesa, Arizona. “These states will be the main focus for our growth for the next several years, along with continued expansion in our current metro areas,” said the CEO: But the company would “also love to talk to communities that want to build their own fiber networks.”
Brightspeed plans to expand fiber to 40,000 Arkansas customers in 10 counties by the end of 2023, the company said Wednesday. Brightspeed’s network includes ILEC assets that Apollo bought from Lumen. The deal recently got all state regulatory approvals but still needs an FCC greenlight (see 2206290041). Brightspeed earlier detailed fiber plans in Tennessee and several other states (see 2207270011).
West Virginia gave preliminary approval to $6 million in grants for two Altice broadband infrastructure projects through the state’s Line Extension Advancement and Development (LEAD) program, Gov. Jim Justice (R) said Tuesday. Through this third round of LEAD grants, West Virginia expects to build about 768 miles of fiber meant to connect 9,337 homes and businesses, the governor’s office said. The $6 million investment will be matched with about $8.4 million from other funding sources, it said.
The Ohio Office of Workforce Transformation said Tuesday Ashland University, the Tri-County Career Center, the Washington County Joint Vocational School District and Youngstown State University were collectively awarded $592,215 to support broadband or 5G-related credentials through the Individual Microcredential Assistance Program.
Wireline ISPs urged California Senate appropriators to support a bill to revise the California Public Utilities Commission’s review process for California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant applications, at a hearing Monday. AB-2749 would streamline the CASF program with federal funding coming, said USTelecom lobbyist Yolanda Benson at the livestreamed Senate Appropriations hearing. The Electronic Frontier Foundation opposes AB-2749 (see 2205240048). The committee agreed to move the bill to its “suspense file," a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly and that will be taken up before a Friday fiscal-committee deadline. The committee also sent to suspense AB-32 to keep temporary telehealth changes made on an emergency basis during the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2105170030); AB-1262, which seeks to restrict use of recordings or transcriptions of what users say to or in the presence of smart speakers; and AB-2750 to require the CPUC to develop a state digital equity plan by Jan. 1, 2024. California appropriators sent many other communications bills to suspense last week (see 2208030056 and 2208010060).
LightBox will develop a Texas broadband map by January, Comptroller Glenn Hegar (R) said Monday. When completed, the comptroller’s Broadband Development Office, community leaders and the public “will be able to extract information from the map to better understand the needs of their regions and to make better decisions establishing programs related to broadband development,” said Hegar. Alabama, Georgia and Montana earlier chose LightBox for state mapping.
The District of Columbia is “exploring all options, including appeal,” of a D.C. Superior Court decision affirming its dismissal of an Amazon antitrust case, a spokesperson for Attorney General Karl Racine (D) said Friday. The court last week rejected D.C.’s motion to reconsider Judge Hiram Puig-Lugo’s verbal dismissal last March of Racine’s complaint (case 2021 CA 001775 B). DOJ supported a second look (see 2204280052). Rejecting reconsideration, Puig-Lugo disagreed that the court failed to accept as true detailed factual allegations of anti-competitive effects. “The District simply repeated vague conclusion after vague conclusion devoid of facts to support the vague conclusions it repeatedly stated.” D.C. may not file an amended complaint, he said. The judge “got this wrong,” said the Racine spokesperson. Amazon didn't comment.
Electing Georgia Public Service Commission members on a statewide, at-large basis “unlawfully dilutes the votes of Black citizens under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and must change,” U.S. District Court in Atlanta ruled Friday. In an opinion in case 1:20-cv-02921-SDG, Judge Steven Grimberg blocked Georgia’s secretary of state from preparing Nov. 8 election ballots with PSC contests for districts 2 and 3. Also, Grimberg stopped the secretary from administering any future elections for PSC vacancies, or certifying the elections of any commissioners, using the election method the state has had since 1906. The court understands that the General Assembly doesn't next meet until January, wrote the judge. "Consequently, this Order shall remain in effect until a method for conducting such elections that complies with Section 2 is enacted by the General Assembly and approved by the Court, or is otherwise adopted by the Court should the General Assembly fail to enact such a method.” Georgia's attorney general office said it's "reviewing the order." The secretary of state's office referred us to the AG and PSC for comment. The Georgia PSC declined to comment.
Revised draft rule changes on emergency service network reliability will be due Sept. 7, Colorado Administrative Law Judge Conor Farley said at a partially virtual hearing Friday. State 911 Program Manager Daryl Branson said workshops involving industry and other stakeholders are nearly complete. The group has been seeking consensus on changes meant to improve basic emergency service (BES) network reliability and set a tariff-based mechanism for funding network improvements (see 2206090050). Two more workshops are scheduled for Aug. 9 and 16, Branson said. Farley, Branson and parties agreed to deadlines of Sept. 19 for comments and Sept. 30 for replies on the upcoming revised draft rules. The PUC would then have a public comment hearing 11:30 a.m. Oct. 13, the ALJ said.