Altice’s Suddenlink Communications must show why it shouldn’t face penalties and be required to take remedial steps to improve service, the West Virginia Public Service Commission said Thursday. The commission scheduled two Aug. 24 public comment hearings and an Aug. 26 evidentiary hearing. The cable operator failed to file a plan to fix customer service problems as PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane asked in May (see 2105060028), the agency said. “Suddenlink’s response ... was completely inadequate,” Lane said Thursday. “To characterize over 1,900 complaints in a positive fashion as ‘less than 1%’ of its customer base, is particularly concerning.” The PSC ordered the company within 30 days to file information including on outages, network enhancement projects and customer complaint logs. Altice gets “that some of our customers may have experienced some frustration particularly during the pandemic as the company adapted operations to ensure the safety of customers and employees,” a spokesperson said: The company is working “diligently” to enhance service and will keep talking with the PSC.

A Maine video franchise bill died after the legislature failed to override a veto by Gov. Janet Mills (D). The bill would have applied fees to IPTV operators to fund public, educational and governmental channels (see 2106180038). The House failed to meet the two-thirds threshold when it voted 78-66 Wednesday on LD-920. “I am deeply concerned that if this bill were to become law, it could make digital streaming services more costly and reduce service options for Mainers,” Mills wrote in a June 25 veto letter.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) Wednesday approved HB-1621, the small-cells bill OK’d by the Senate 50-0 last week (see 2106250053). It was presented to Wolf Monday.

A bill amending the Florida Telemarketing Act to prohibit calls outside the hours 8 a.m.-8 p.m. and requiring consumers' prior express written consent before automated calls are transmitted to a caller are among the three telecom bills Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed Tuesday. Also signed was SB-1944, which gives the Florida Public Service Commission authority to reverse preempt the FCC on regulating pole attachments and mediating disputes. Florida is the 23rd state to enact such a law (see 2104280054). DeSantis also signed a bill prohibiting police from using drones to collect evidence of violations (see 2101260009).

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) Wednesday appealed a lower court ruling blocking the state's new broadband affordability law. The filing is in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in Pacer). Judge Denis Hurley of U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York, granted a preliminary injunction in June enjoining the state from enforcing the new law (see 2106110064).

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ broadband access task force recommended an increase in investments in broadband infrastructure and promoting digital equity, in a new report Wednesday. The report recommended additional funding for the state's broadband expansion grant program; establishing a state internet assistance program to help low-income families, collecting internet access data at the granular level and increasing pricing transparency. The report’s recommendations “will help us take the next steps toward getting folks connected,” Evers (D) said.

The FCC, NTIA and the Department of Agriculture’s plan to coordinate federal broadband deployment funds (see 2106250056) should increase efficiency and produce the “biggest bang for the buck” in communities with little or no broadband, said NARUC broadband task force member Talina Mathews Tuesday. The state broadband group recommended more coordination (see 2106250048), noted the Kentucky Public Service commissioner in a livestreamed panel at the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners (MACRUC) meeting in Farmington, Pennsylvania. “The haves and have-nots really came to light when we had to go virtual,” with some children forced to sit in McDonald’s parking lots to get Wi-Fi for homework, Mathews said. COVID-19 put an “intense spotlight” on underserved areas, said Virginia State Corporation Commission Judge Judy Jagdmann on a later, partially virtual MACRUC panel. Electric utilities are constructing broadband middle mile facilities in their states after laws passed to ease limits, said Jagdmann and West Virginia PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane. West Virginia’s commission cleared a $61.3 million, 400-mile middle-mile broadband project by Appalachian Power June 16 that could serve 15,000 unserved customers, said utility Vice President-External Affairs Brad Hall. Though an energy users group sought reconsideration Monday of parts of the PSC’s OK in case 21-0032-E-IMM, the energy company hopes to begin 24-month construction by year-end, Hall said. The users group said it challenges “limited questions of cost recovery,” not PSC approval of the plan or proposed project. Lane said she couldn't talk about the pending reconsideration.

Don’t reduce Minnesota landline service quality standards, two state agencies advised the Public Utilities Commission in comments Monday on a Lumen petition to eliminate or modify answering time and service interruption rules. Any rulemaking "should be for the purpose of creating appropriate expectations of telephone companies and providing reasonable service standards,” not “reducing standards,” the Minnesota Commerce Department said in docket 21-381. First resolve a probe sought by the Communications Workers of America (docket C-20-432) into “alleged violations of those same rules,” it added. Even if the carrier formerly known as CenturyLink is right that only 4.4% of Minnesota households rely solely on landline for voice, “these landline customers matter,” the state attorney general’s office commented. “There is no reason to believe that any savings CenturyLink might gain from reduced telephone regulation will be invested into increased broadband service,” it responded to one Lumen claim. “It is just as likely that CenturyLink will keep this surplus for its investors.” CWA’s investigation found Lumen “failed to maintain its physical copper plant and has failed to deploy fiber to 46% percent of its coverage area in Minnesota,” the union said. “Elimination of service quality rules does not magically fix understaffing and lack of investment in what might be less profitable areas of the state.” Frontier Communications supported Lumen, saying it “experiences the same demand to prioritize voice service over broadband service in order to comply” with the service interruption rule. “Installation and repair of broadband service often takes a backseat to satisfying the stringent repair requirements for voice service.” Lumen said the 40-year-old rules are “reflective of an era where providers were monopolies that could recover costs associated with service quality standards through rate of return pricing.” Issues “are not limited to one company and the concern about balancing the importance of voice and broadband service in Minnesota is a statewide issue.” Lumen dismissed comments from Stillwater Township residents including Board of Supervisors Chair Sheila-Marie Untiedt, who cited “a long history of complaints, issues and challenges with the CenturyLink services provided on our community.” Untiedt said she personally “endured weeklong stretches where the line is down or the noise is so loud it is unusable.” Stillwater seeks to “leverage this docket for improving broadband services” to about 800 homes there, replied Lumen. “Such an effort is ironic, given that the rules CenturyLink seeks to change prioritize voice repair over broadband.”

An Ohio legislative conference committee scrapped a municipal broadband ban from the proposed state budget Monday, Ice Miller attorney Jessica Voltolini told us. The House and Senate planned to vote on the conference report later that evening, said the local government attorney. Localities were gearing up to sue Ohio unless lawmakers discarded the proposed ban (see 2106180013). Fairlawn, Ohio, Public Service Director Ernie Staten praised local rallying around the issue. “Municipalities only enter the broadband space when forced to by the inaction of the private sector,” he said.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a high-speed internet bill Sunday allowing $10 million from federal COVID-19 relief funds to be used for telehealth grants and $5 million for broadband grants for low-income households or “critically unserved” areas with less than 10/1 Mbps. Funds in critically unserved areas are for satellite providers only, said the bill (SB-60).