Making one monthly Texas USF payment to AMA TechTel Communications doesn’t satisfy a court order to pay full amounts owed from Dec. 1, 2021, the CLEC said Monday at the 3rd District Texas Court of Appeals in Austin. Texas disagreed last week it must pay retroactively to make up the difference of reduced payments (see 2207080032). Texas tries to “preempt an inquiry into what this Court’s order commands,” responded AMA in case 03-21-00597-CV. “They have failed on the facts and the law.” The Texas Public Utility Commission paid $1.34 million, but the full amount owed, dating back to December, is about $8.59 million, said AMA. The PUC is scheduled to consider a TUSF assessment item at its Thursday meeting.

The Texas Public Utility Commission should allow Lumen’s CenturyLink to deregulate 20 exchanges (see 2206170030), PUC staff recommended Monday in docket 53611-7. The telco’s petition meets Texas statutory requirements, staff said.

A South Carolina data scraping case could get a trial on or after May 8, Judge Mary Lewis said in a Monday scheduling order at the U.S. District Court in Columbia. The NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union sued the South Carolina State Court Administration in March for banning automated data collection (see 2203300049). Discovery must be done by Jan. 4 and the deadline for mediation is March 20, ruled Lewis in case 3:2022-cv-01007. The state court defendants moved to dismiss the case. The federal court should abstain “because this case implicates decisions for which the common law and the state constitution have entrusted authority to” South Carolina’s judicial branch, they said Friday. “Plaintiff has no right to access data in the Judicial Branch’s control,” the defendants said. “The First Amendment requires no right of access,” but even if that right exists, “it is not unlimited and does not extend to the particular type of access sought by Plaintiff,” the state courts said. “Any minor hurdle to one particular user posed by the prohibition on scraping does not offend the First Amendment.”

Telcos facing state scrutiny for allegedly impeding Minnesota's transition to next-generation 911 said they will propose a possible resolution. Christensen Communications and nine others named in a Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) complaint would “provide all requested services and interconnections” if DPS agrees to compensate the providers from the date the services are provided, they said in Friday comments at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (docket C-22-245). The providers said the rates they had proposed, which led to the DPS complaint, “accurately reflect” the services to be provided and were “based on a National Exchange Carrier Association tariff, with prices updated as of 2021, approved by the" FCC. The companies "are neither refusing to interconnect nor attempting to leverage or delay the transition to the NG 911 system,” they said. DPS urged the PUC to act fast. The providers “placed unreasonable conditions on their willingness to interconnect,” are “impeding the full adoption of necessary improvements, thus jeopardizing their customers’ 911 access, and are seeking to impose unreasonable and unnecessary costs on the 911 fund,” it said. Minnesota's Commerce Department said the “allegations warrant investigation" and the PUC has authority. DPS also received support for its complaint from the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association, Statewide Emergency Communications Board and the Metropolitan Emergency Services Board for the Minneapolis/St. Paul region.

The California Privacy Protection Agency set an Aug. 24-25 hearing on proposed rules to implement the 2020 California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). Written comments on the draft regulations will be due Aug. 23, the agency said in a Friday notice of proposed rulemaking. The CPPA board greenlit the CPRA rulemaking and released draft rules last month (see 2206080042).

Texas doesn’t have to retroactively pay Texas USF (TUSF) support it kept from AMA TechTel Communications due to insufficient available funding, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said Thursday. The 3rd District Texas Court of Appeals in Austin ordered the PUC June 30 to pay full amounts owed (see 2206300045). Paxton told the appeals court AMA on July 5 received a full monthly payment for June of about $1.34 million but now is asking a lower court to order the PUC to pay all support owed since Dec. 1. The court didn’t “unlawfully require retroactive payments,” the AG said. It could take until at least mid-September before the PUC can make full payments to all TUSF recipients, Paxton said. “The TUSF presently lacks sufficient money to pay all amounts owed from the fund,” so the PUC would first have to raise the assessment rate and wait until enough revenue accrued before it could pay, said Paxton. He noted the PUC has an item on TUSF assessment on this Thursday’s meeting agenda. AMA didn’t comment Friday. In a separate, similar case, the appeals court ruled June 30 that the PUC violated the state’s constitution and utility and administrative procedure laws when it chose not to fully fund TUSF (see 2207010045).

Maryland’s broadband office awarded $127.6 million to ISPs, communities and educational organizations to reach about 15,000 unserved or underserved households and grade-school students, said Gov. Larry Hogan (R) Friday. “Broadband is now available to well over 95% of Marylanders,” said Hogan. “Our goal is to ensure universal broadband to everyone in every single corner of the state.” Maryland awarded grants through four Connect Maryland programs. Of nearly $99.8 million from the Network Infrastructure Grant Program, Choptank Electric received the most money ($20.5 million), followed by Talkie ($19.8 million), Comcast ($17.4 million), Shentel ($10 million), Quantum ($10 million) and Charter Communications ($8.5 million).

The Pennsylvania House voted 109-91 for a broadband bill to order an inventory of state-owned assets (see 2106150076). SB-442 would also create a restricted account in the general fund for deploying broadband to unserved and underserved areas, funded by revenue from leases and licenses allowed by the bill, said a fiscal summary: If enacted, the bill would provide about $37,000 annually to the account. Republicans cast all the yes votes Wednesday, with only two joining Democrats in voting no. The Senate passed SB-442 last year in a 27-20 vote that broke on similar party lines, but the chamber must vote again to agree to House changes.

The Florida Public Service Commission kept a 10-cent monthly surcharge on landline bills for telecom relay services for the 2022/2023 fiscal year, the commission said Thursday. The PSC approved a $3.96 million annual budget for Florida Telecommunications Relay. The budget increased by about $208,000 from last year “to account for a recent rise in relay service expenses,” the PSC said. Revenue is down due to reduced access lines, it noted. “As in past years, reported numbers show a downward trend in relay service call volumes,” said PSC Chairman Andrew Fay.

The U.S. government argues its free speech matters more than citizens’ free speech, said Louisiana and Missouri Thursday at the U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana. “The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected this argument,” said the states, citing 2017’s Matal v. Tam. The Biden administration urged the court last week not to grant expedited discovery on seeking a preliminary injunction in case 3:22-cv-01213-TAD-KDM, where the two states claim the administration colluded with social media platforms to censor and suppress truthful information (see 2207050042). Courts often grant expedited discovery in cases challenging a government action’s constitutionality, responded the states. “The Government cites no authority to the contrary.”