California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) cleared $6 billion for broadband Tuesday. During a livestreamed visit to an elementary school in Tulare County, California, Newsom signed the budget bill that passed the legislature last week on a bipartisan basis (see 2107150059). “It's a utility ... that connects to the future," said Newsom. Lack of progress on broadband over many years has been frustrating, he said. “We had a system that incentivized bad behavior.” State and local officials joined Newsom to celebrate the funding, including Democratic Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry and state Sens. Anna Caballero and Lena Gonzalez. Aguiar-Curry lauded the “generational investment in closing the digital divide.” The funding for last mile and an open-access middle mile network will reduce high prices caused by too little competition today, said Caballero.

Colorado’s Broadband Advisory Board in its first six months focused on enhancing broadband data accuracy, including by aligning data collection requirements with the FCC’s broadband data collection program, increasing ISP engagement and seeking legislation to require mapping program participation from broadband funding applicants, the board said in a Monday report. Over the next year, the board aims to build “awareness of the impacts, struggles, strategies and successes regarding broadband in our state,” wrote Chair Bob Fifer. “We will continue to improve our data so that we can make informed decisions and provide compelling guidance as trusted advisors to leadership and stakeholders.” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) created the board in an Oct. 30 executive order (see 2010300022).

Three in four businesses that received notices of alleged privacy violations under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) cured problems in the 30-day period allowed by the law, state Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said at a livestreamed Monday news conference. The other 25% include businesses under active investigation or within the 30-day window, he said. Bonta declined to say how many businesses received notices or which companies failed to cure and now face probes. He cited a few examples of alleged violations that businesses cured in response to notices, including an unnamed social media platform that users said was too slow to respond to CCPA requests and an online dating app that forced sharing of personal information during sign-up but didn't have a do-not-sell link as required by the law. "Businesses are motivated and able to comply with the law,” and the “vast majority” comply, said Bonta. No “gotchas,” he said. The AG launched an online tool on Monday so consumers can directly notify a business that lacks a clear and easy-to-find do-not-sell link on its website. Such consumer notices “may” trigger the 30-day cure period, he said. Bonta said he hopes for higher uptake from consumers clicking do-not-sell links to get CCPA protections. California started enforcing CCPA about a year ago.

FCC staff are examining Rural Digital Opportunity Fund waiver requests (see 2106040058), an agency staffer told NARUC Monday in Denver. Some eligible telecom carrier applications “are still being worked on” and “we will be processing through those waiver requests,” said Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force Chief of Staff Audra Hale-Maddox. Staff also are "diligently reviewing those long-form applications” for RDOF, she said virtually on a panel with in-person and remote participants. Some ISPs sought additional time beyond the June 7 FCC ETC deadline, and states have also supported such requests, panelists noted. They said there likely will be some safe harbor for those companies to get their ETC extension requests granted and/or not face adverse action. Joseph Witmer, counsel to Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille, later asked about possible challenges to RDOF funding awards: “What happens if a lawsuit spins out of this.” He wondered if it could slow things. Hale-Maddox declined to comment on possible legal or policymaking issues. Long-form applications “are a, shall we say, controversial issue,” said Witmer, noting he spoke only for himself. “Interested stakeholders” want to examine details of broadband deployment plans and want to ensure bidders can provide speeds and latency as promised, he said. “I know ETC is burdensome, I know it takes time” and “some bidders don’t want it at all,” the PUC staffer said: “We are talking here about scarce public capital” however, and ETC status is a vehicle for oversight. Some 15 companies have sought ETC-deadline delays, Witmer estimated in an interview. He thinks the FCC might treat those requests as it did in a previous auction, Connect America Fund Phase II, with safe harbor when there are good-faith compliance efforts. Although there aren’t RDOF deadlines here, Hale-Maddox said staffers “anticipate that will be moving forward with completing those reviews” and that CAF II and RDOF time frames may be similar. “There’s a lot of concern at the state level” about “untested technologies” potentially getting RDOF money, said Tilson Vice President-Utilities Elin Swanson Katz. States understand why the FCC must be technology-neutral in its funding decisions, she added. States hope dollars will go to fiber-based tech whether wireless, wireline or otherwise, and utilities want to play a role, said Katz.

Consolidated Communications got all required state OKs for a Searchlight Capital investment to expand the carrier’s broadband footprint, Consolidated said Friday. The company has shareholders’ approval and remains “on track to close on the full Searchlight investment following FCC approval expected later this year,” said CEO Bob Udell. The New York Public Service Commission cleared it Thursday (See 2107150030).

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was expected to clear $6 billion for broadband, after the Senate and Assembly widely supported the plan (see 2107130054) on Thursday. No lawmaker from either party voted nay. At the livestreamed floor session, Sen. Brian Dahle (R) praised the proposal for letting rural electric cooperatives seek funding. Dahle is “tired of hearing” criticism from private ISPs that he said failed to use earlier funding and haven’t presented solutions.

Broadband access is a "top equity issue" for counties, reported the National Association of Counties Broadband Task Force Wednesday. It should be a regulated utility to help bridge the digital divide. It supported better data collection and a collaborative effort between federal and local stakeholders. The task force recommended a scalable federal definition of up to 1 Gbps symmetrical. There's "work that needs to be done by all of us ... to bridge that divide and level the playing field for communities, businesses and families forced to use antiquated 20th century technology,” said task force co-Chair and Wise County, Texas, Judge J.D. Clark.

New York state added text messaging to telemarketing as prohibited by an anti-robocalls law. It closes an “annoying loophole” for SMS, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said as he signed the bill Tuesday.

Ohio lawmakers proposed a comprehensive data privacy bill that would apply to businesses with at least $25 million revenue in the state. “Federal and state laws do not adequately protect how companies use your personal data and what rights you have to that information,” Lt. Governor Jon Husted (R) said Tuesday on the bill (HB-376) introduced Monday. “Without action in this space on the federal level, it’s important that our state take the lead.” Rep. Rick Carfagna (R) said his bill “will balance reasonable privacy standards to protect Ohioans with less bureaucracy and regulation on businesses.” The plan lists data rights for consumers including a right to delete personal data and to request that businesses not sell such information. Ohio’s attorney general would exclusively enforce HB-376, which has no private right of action. The bill would give enhanced legal protection for Ohio businesses that adopt the National Institute of Standards and Technology privacy framework. Husted’s office shared supportive statements Tuesday from Charter Communications, the Ohio Cable Telecommunications Association and several business groups including the Ohio Business Roundtable and Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Colorado enacted the third state privacy law last week (see 2107080004).

California Public Utilities Commissioners may vote Aug. 19 on an interim order to reduce inmate calling service rates (see 2104290034), said a proposed decision Monday in docket R.20-10-002. The proposal would cap intrastate rates at 7 cents per minute for debit, prepaid and collect calls, and prohibit some fees. It would require “pass through, with no mark up” of third-party financial transaction fees, up to $6.95 per transaction, and of taxes and fees for intrastate and jurisdictionally mixed ICS. And it would ban “any other type of ancillary fee or service fee not explicitly approved in this decision.”