The Florida Public Service Commission opened a pole attachments case docket 20210138 Monday to consider rules for reverse preempting the FCC, and related docket 20210137 about pole attachment complaints. A workshop is expected later this month (see 2108120062).

"Google Search is not a common carrier of anything under Ohio law or otherwise,” Google told a state court Friday. The state asked the Common Pleas Court in Delaware County to find Google is a carrier and public utility (see 2106080056). The court should dismiss the case because Ohio failed to state a claim for relief, said Google, seeking a one-hour hearing. Asking to declare Google a common carrier or public utility for the reason that it's most Ohioans' preferred search service "has no more validity under the law than a request to declare Fox News, the New York Times, or Walmart a 'public utility' because most people in a particular town prefer to get their news or groceries from them instead of someone else,” the search engine said: Google responds to user queries with information and doesn’t transport queries, and it’s not a carrier of information on a results page "because it is not hired by others to display the links to their webpages in its search results.” Google search isn’t an essential service, and neither it nor its competitors ever faced regulations controlling "the relation between the business and the public as its customers, such as those that prevent unfair rates and denial of service," said Google: Under Ohio Supreme Court precedent, absence of such rules prevents courts from declaring the search engine a public utility. Free speech bans Ohio courts from regulating how Google search responds to user queries, it added. Google said it’s premature to consider Ohio’s motion to bifurcate two counts from its complaint (see 2106170055).

The cable industry raised fiscal concerns about a broadband bill to update the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). The Senate Appropriations Committee placed AB-14 in its “suspense file” Monday, a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly and that will be taken up later. The California Cable Telecommunications Association would support AB-14 if amended to address “serious fiscal impacts,” said Vice President-Government Affairs Bernie Orozco at the livestreamed hearing. Some RF safety advocates raised concerns about the bill supporting wireless deployment. Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and other localities supported AB-14. A companion bill (SB-4) is up for vote Thursday in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The CASF bills are nearing final votes (see 2107090049). Orozco later opposed a communications disaster reporting measure (AB-1100) as “duplicative and unnecessary.” The committee placed it on suspense. Other bills moved to that file Monday included AB-41 about agency coordination on conduit deployment, AB-74 to require various California LifeLine enrollment and recertification process changes and the cable-backed AB-1560 on distance learning.

Incoming New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) understands the state’s broadband challenges, including through her experience as chair of the Regional Economic Development Councils, emailed Ana Rua, who heads Crown Castle government affairs-New York city and state. Hochul “has publicly acknowledged that online access is a necessity, not a luxury -- a fact that has only grown more significant over the past year,” said Rua, previously broadband director at New York Empire State Development. New York state observers said the sudden gubernatorial transition could affect how the state spends federal broadband dollars (see 2108110037).

New York will gain more broadband funding from two $5 million settlements with pole owners that allegedly violated state safety rules. The New York Public Service Commission unanimously cleared the two settlements with Frontier Communications and Rochester Gas and Electric as part of their Thursday meeting consent agenda. New York Public Service Department investigations said the companies allowed non-conforming attachments to remain on poles without remediation, the PSC said. The order in 20-M-0360 says $7.5 million will immediately go into escrow to be used by the state broadband office to expand wireline broadband. Half of the RG&E settlement money is suspended pending compliance with remediation metrics.

NARUC criticized language in the Senate-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (HR-3684) that would extend and expand the emergency broadband benefit. The measure, which the Senate advanced Tuesday (see 2108100062), gives the FCC $14.2 billion for EBB, to be renamed the Affordable Connectivity Fund. “The new broadband benefit ignores critical protections for consumers and for the program itself by extending the partial bypass of the Eligible Telecommunication Carrier designation process, which also bypasses many states that are both interested in and able to protect program beneficiaries,” NARUC said Thursday. “Unfortunately, the industry voices that aimed to avoid oversight carried more weight than NARUC’s concern for sound, reasonable protections for the public.”

Kentucky posted a request for proposals for $50 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act broadband funding. The RFP is open until Oct. 25 and funds may be awarded by April, the office of Gov. Andy Beshear (D) said Wednesday.

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska should propose connections-based contribution for state USF, said Matanuska Telephone Association (MTA) representatives in a presentation at the Regulatory Commission of Alaska’s virtual Wednesday meeting. Adopting a flat surcharge of about $2.20 monthly per voice connection would stabilize the fund and generate about $25 million in funding, said consultant and former FCC Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Carol Mattey. Nebraska, New Mexico, Maine and Utah previously took that approach, she said. The proposed change should bring in enough money to restore Alaska USF distributions to frozen 2016 levels, said Kemppel Huffman’s Dean Thompson. MTA recommends independent governance of the state fund by either issuing a request for proposals to find a third-party auditor or restructuring the Alaska Universal Service Administrative Co. board to have independent members rather than telecom industry members as it does now, said Mattey. Allowing companies that contribute to and receive money from the fund to also administer it is unique to Alaska, she said. MTA plans to formally submit its proposal by Sept. 1, said Director-Legal, Regulatory and Government Affairs Ryan Ponder. RCA Chairman Bob Pickett said he wants to resolve AUSF changes well before the fund sunsets June 30, 2023, and expects an active fall in the AUSF docket (R-21-001). The Oklahoma Corporation Commission last week adopted connections-based contribution on an interim basis (see 2108050049).

Nebraska broadband grant applications will be accepted from Sept. 9 to Oct. 1, the Nebraska Public Service Commission said in a Tuesday order. “We’ve had good participation in this process so far, and we expect that to translate into plenty of applications,” Chair Dan Watermeier said. The PSC is running the state’s $20 million program that Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) enacted May 26 (see 2106080068).

California regulators should reject prison-phone provider claims that a competitive market is already bringing reduced intrastate rates, consumer groups said in Monday reply comments in docket R.20-10-002. They responded to Global Tel*Link (GTL) and Securus telling the California Public Utilities Commission earlier this month that proposed limits on inmate calling service (ICS) rates and some fees are illegal (see 2108030041). A 7 cent cap would be “just and reasonable,” said the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office (PAO). GTL and Securus arguments that the interim rules wouldn't allow them to recover costs are “invalid,” the PAO said. It plans to meet by videoconference Thursday with aides to President Marybel Batjer and Commissioner Darcie Houck, and Friday with aides to Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen, the public advocate said in filings Monday and Tuesday. The Center for Accessible Technology urged the CPUC to reject ICS provider arguments that they lack market power. “That ... providers cannot set prices as high as they might like is not evidence that the market is competitive.” The proposed decision “properly views the market through the lens of the end-user, who has no choice of IPCS [incarcerated persons calling services] service provider,” replied The Utility Reform Network: Provider “arguments claim theoretical negotiation dynamics and restrictions on rate changes within the RFP process but lack the end-user perspective entirely.” The Prison Policy Initiative said “numerous factors other than market competition can lead to lower calling rates: facilities may demand or encourage carriers to offer lower rates; legislative bodies may require lower rates; carriers or facilities may simply want the administrative ease of a uniform rate structure for inter- and intrastate calling; carriers may lower voice calling rates and compensate by boosting revenue through unregulated services that are bundled in the same contract.” A 7 cent rate “is feasible for all facilities ... based on existing lower rates in facilities with populations less than 500 people” in other states, including local jails in Maryland, New Jersey and Washington state, said the Californians for Jail and Prison Phone Justice Coalition. Providers repeated their opposition to the interim plan. “The arbitrarily low single-rate cap and limits on ancillary service fees are unworkable and unlawful,” and would “undermine the substantial progress” made through competition, commented GTL. The CPUC may vote Aug. 19 on the draft order.