The Pennsylvania Senate voted 50-0 Friday for a small-cells bill. HB-1621 next needs gubernatorial OK. All but three House members voted yes earlier last week (see 2106240040). New Jersey's AB-1116 passed the Assembly Thursday 63-9 despite mixed views by localities on the preemptive measure (see 2106150057). Senate version S-2674 awaits final vote by that chamber.

Florida’s social media law doesn’t “regulate the ‘conduct’ of ‘common carriers’ or impose only ‘incidental’ burdens on speech,” NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association replied (in Pacer) Friday to Florida at U.S. District Court in Tallahassee. The state defended its law earlier last week as not unlike common carrier regulation (see 2106220030). The contested state law “overrides online services’ protected editorial judgments, interfering with the messages those judgments express and making the State the ultimate arbiter of private companies’ speech,” the internet industry groups said. “Florida cannot mandate such ‘enforced access’ -- even in the name of ‘enhanc[ing]’ speech, promoting ‘fairness,’ or addressing supposedly ‘vast accumulations of unreviewable power in the modern media empires.’” Virtual oral argument is Monday at 1:30 p.m. Judge Robert Hinkle said he plans to rule on preliminary injunction by end-of-day June 30.

Telcos urged more aggressive deregulation by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, in replies last week in docket L-2018-3001391. PUC-proposed changes don't “go far enough in reducing regulation to establish the light touch appropriate for today's environment,” but “would simply set in stone another version of micro-managing, monopoly-era regulatory mandates that would be outdated as soon as they are promulgated,” said Verizon. Consumer groups favoring regulation “failed to substantiate their outdated assumptions with any real world evidence,” and give no proof that seniors and disadvantaged individuals would lose landline service or that prices would spike, the carrier said. PUC rules “are so arcane and infective [sic] as to need a complete rewrite -- not just an update for selected exchanges,” the Pennsylvania Telephone Association commented. “The Commission has been far too timid in surrendering even a portion of its regulatory powers over the ILECs. Infinite study of deregulation becomes a barrier to the needed reforms.” CLECs Tri-Co Connections and Claverack Communications urged the PUC to slash “most, if not all, of the legacy regulations that apply to competitive carriers.” Don’t exaggerate the extent of Pennsylvania competition, replied the Office of Consumer Advocate. “Nor does the option of switching to an alternative service, where available, remedy a consumer’s immediate need for reliable, continuous service from their current telecommunications carrier.”

Pennsylvania’s House-passed small-cells bill sailed to full Senate consideration. At a livestreamed Thursday hearing, the Appropriations Committee voted unanimously for HB-1621, which was passed by the House Tuesday with only three nays (see 2106220047). The Senate Communications Committee cleared it unanimously Wednesday. The Senate voted 49-1 Tuesday to pass a similar bill (SB-769).

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) is seeking ISP comment on $300 million tagged for increasing state connectivity, his office said Thursday. Responses due July 12 on the request for information will shape questions and conditions in an upcoming request for proposals.

AT&T, Frontier Communications and other telcos will pay nearly $3.2 million in combined fines for substandard service quality last year. At a livestreamed virtual Thursday meeting, the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously supported a consent agenda including a proposed resolution to OK the companies’ advice letters proposing the fines. AT&T proposed paying about $3.1 million, compared with Frontier's $37,200.

Frontier Communications promised to stop advertising higher speeds than it delivers in Ohio, Attorney General Dave Yost (R) said Thursday. The ISP agreed to upgrade internet infrastructure and stop overbilling for unreliable service, the AG office said. The carrier agreed to spend $15 million to “provide or enhance internet services” over four years, said the agreement emailed to us by the AG office. That’s on top of $25 million yearly 2021-23 Frontier agreed to spend in an August 2020 settlement with the Public Utilities Commission (see 2008120056), it said. The pact resolves an Ohio AG probe into Frontier sales and ad practices. The carrier didn’t comment.

LTD Broadband “misrepresented the facts” in its waiver request for eligible telecom carrier designation as a winning Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I auction bidder, the California Public Utilities Commission told the FCC in a letter posted Wednesday in docket 19-126. The CPUC said LTD didn’t file its ETC application April 26, instead June 3 after close of business. The PUC said the docket number cited in LTD’s petition didn’t exist and its ETC application “to date has not been assigned a docket number because the filing still has not been processed.” Attorney Kristopher Twomey said he sent "an original and four copies of the application to the CPUC by U.S. mail" on April 26 but "did not know that the CPUC was not accepting applications sent via U.S. mail" then, according to a supplement to LTD's petition filed Wednesday. Twomey acknowledged in the filing that the April 26 date and the docket number were incorrect, and neither LTD CEO Corey Hauer nor his attorney "had any basis to know that these statements were inaccurate."

Pennsylvania’s proposed small-cells law passed the House in a 198-3 vote after unanimously clearing the Appropriations Committee earlier Tuesday. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 24-0 the same day to advance its version. Local governments are neutral on the preemptive bill (HB-1621 / SB-769) to streamline 5G infrastructure deployment. New Jersey also is advancing a small-cells bill (see 2106150057).

The New York Public Service Commission suspended implementing the state’s broadband affordability law that was enjoined last week by U.S. District Court in Central Islip, New York (see 2106110064). Interim Chair John Howard issued a one-commissioner order Monday to pause case 21-M-0290 “pending further developments or court orders.” The stay applies to a May 20 order granting temporary exemptions to some small ISPs and a May 28 notice that sought comments by Friday on the law’s applicability to DSL services with lower than 25 Mbps downloads.