NARUC would support energy utilities expanding broadband, under a proposed resolution for the Nov. 7-10 partially virtual meeting in Louisville. The Telecom Committee’s sole proposal, released Tuesday, would encourage “regulators and industry to support and facilitate the deployment by utilities of wired and wireless secure, reliable broadband networks for critical grid communications.” Energy companies planning networks should consider sharing wired and wireless middle-mile communications infrastructure to support expanding consumer broadband, the draft said. If feasible and in customers’ best interest during wireless planning, energy companies should “coordinate to reduce equipment costs and enable provision of network services to other utilities with overlapping service territories,” it said: “To the extent permissible,” state legislatures and commissions should reduce burdensome rules or laws.

Congress didn’t intend for VoIP customers to pay more for 911 than landline users, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. The court denied Autauga County and other Alabama 911 districts’ challenge to an FCC order restricting state, local and tribal governments in Alabama from charging higher 911 calling fees for VoIP than traditional telecom services (see 1910250063). The 911 districts argued Congress’ 911 fee parity rule allowed them to charge VoIP and non-VoIP providers using a different unit of measure for each if they applied the same base fee for each unit. “We independently arrive at the same conclusion as the FCC,” wrote Judge Robin Rosenbaum (in Pacer). “We base our determination on congressional intent as expressed in the statutory text, structure, and purpose of the NET 911 Act.” Congress’ 911 fee parity rule “precludes any unit of measurement that results in higher total fees for VoIP subscribers than for non-VoIP subscribers with the same outbound concurrent call capacity,” said Rosenbaum: The point “is to ensure that VoIP and non-VoIP subscribers financially support 911 facilities to the same extent that they burden the hotline service.” The Alabama group’s reading “would create a financial disincentive to potential VoIP providers and subscribers alike to invest in VoIP services,” contrary to Congress’ desire to encourage a rapid VoIP transition, she said. Judges Robert Luck and Lanier Anderson joined the opinion. The Alabama districts, FCC and intervenors USTelecom, NCTA and AT&T didn’t comment by our deadline.

The FCC announced an online workshop Dec. 8 at 2 p.m. EST to provide technical assistance to tribal governments on broadband data collection, said a public notice Monday.

Massachusetts legislators who want to promote rural broadband should crack down on “exorbitant” make-ready rates charged by pole owners in unserved areas, said state Rep. John Barrett (D) at a Joint Telecommunications Committee virtual hearing Friday. Barrett proposed H-3256 to exempt municipalities from paying make-ready fees to use poles for providing broadband to unserved areas. He sees a “lack of oversight” on poles and thinks locally owned broadband could bring “effective competition” to areas that now have one cable company selling high-speed service at high prices, Barrett said: Maine enacted a law like H-3256 and hasn’t been sued yet.

A Connecticut House chair warned the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority not to make one-touch, make-ready rules without the legislature’s direction. PURA is mulling OTMR rules in docket 19-01-52RE01 (see 2108120062). Policymakers removed OTMR from a recent bill, now law, submitted by Gov. Ned Lamont (D) after much debate, said Energy and Technology Committee Chair David Arconti (D) in a letter posted Thursday: “An agency should not attempt to legislate outside of the purview of the legislature.” If the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and Office of Consumer Counsel want OTMR, they should resubmit a legislative proposal to Arconti’s committee, he said. A PURA spokesperson emailed Thursday, "All feedback is taken under serious consideration by the commissioners. At this stage, we are simply in the information-gathering phase."

Verizon and Rochester, New York, must respond by Nov. 18 to each other’s summary judgment motions, said a U.S. District Court in Rochester order (in Pacer) Thursday. Replies are due Dec. 2 in case 6:19-cv-06583-EAW-MWP on whether the city charges excessive fees for installing 5G infrastructure (see 1908120021). “The City has failed to establish that either its small cell or fiber fees are cost-based,” in violation of the FCC’s 2018 small-cells order, said Verizon's Wednesday motion. “Its small cell fees are five times higher than the FCC’s presumptively reasonable amounts.” The city said the carrier doesn’t and can’t show the fees effectively prohibited the company from providing telecom services. These fees “are exactly the sort of fair and neutral compensation that municipalities are expressly allowed to collect under” Communications Act Section 253.

All California Public Utilities Commissioners OK'd post-disaster community engagement and reporting requirements for investor-owned utilities (IOUs) and facilities-based telecom providers. Commissioners supported a consent agenda including a somewhat revised proposal and a separate item adding pole attachment data fields at Thursday's virtual meeting. One edit to the disaster item in the broadband-for-all docket (R.20-09-011) clarified that a first informational advice letter would be due in 15 business -- not calendar -- days, a change sought by CTIA. The CPUC added the phrase “at this time” to a sentence saying it's not requiring IOUs to install fiber during service restoration. The order means “more timely restoral and better restoral” after outages, said Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves. It responds to locality complaints about insufficient communication, she said. Telcos ask what disaster recovery rules have to do with the broadband-for-all proceeding (see 2110070046).

AT&T plans to reinforce its Louisiana network against storms by spending “tens of millions of dollars” to bury fiber that was previously on poles in areas hardest hit by Hurricane Ida, the carrier said Wednesday. The project will focus on parts of the Bayou parishes and in and around New Orleans, it said. AT&T aims to finish in the first half of 2022, completing most work this year, it said. A spokesperson declined to give a specific dollar amount.

The FCC hosts a consumer webinar on spoofing and robocalls with Hawaii's attorney general Oct. 28 at 5:30 p.m. EDT, said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau public notice Wednesday.

The District of Columbia added CEO Mark Zuckerberg as a defendant in a 2018 Facebook lawsuit on its handling of data in the Cambridge Analytica scandal (see 1812190039), D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine (D) tweeted Wednesday. “Our continuing investigation revealed that he was personally involved in decisions related to Cambridge Analytica and Facebook’s failure to protect user data.” A Facebook spokesperson said, “These allegations are as meritless today as they were more than three years ago, when the District filed its complaint. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously and focus on the facts.”