The California Public Utilities Commission won’t edit requirements in a proposed decision to clean up lingering issues in the state’s Frontier reorganization OK. “We decline to incorporate the parties’ recommended changes because the issues raised in the opening comments have been adequately addressed in the proposed decision,” said Monday’s revised proposal in docket A.20-05-010. Frontier and others supported the proposal in the main but suggested tweaks (see 2104060033). The CPUC plans to vote on the item Thursday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should grant a preliminary injunction against California's 2018 net neutrality law, said an amicus brief (in Pacer, case No. 21-15430) filed Tuesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, California Chamber of Commerce, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, Telecommunications Industry Association and CALinnovates after a federal judge denied an injunction in February (see 2102230072). The law "raises more questions than it answers," the groups said, because there's "no principled way to limit regulation of the internet to a single state." Net neutrality rules should be set at the federal level, said TechFreedom in its amicus brief supporting an injunction. Leaving this issue up to the states "will leave everyone stuck, indefinitely, with inconsistent and contradictory state rules," it argued. “The problem is not simply that this state law conflicts with the current federal standards,” said Corbin Barthold, TechFreedom director-appellate litigation, in a statement. “Even if the federal government and a group of states all had identical net neutrality laws, the state laws would remain preempted by federal law."
Adopting one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) in California might affect safety, the California Public Utilities Commission’s Safety and Enforcement Division said Monday. Union workers and the electric industry also raised concerns in docket R.17-06-028 comments about adopting FCC-like OTMR and self-help pole attachment rules. The CPUC should study “technical, safety, and regulatory challenges, barriers, and opportunities" of adopting OTMR and self-help procedures, the safety division said: Don’t adopt them “without sufficient evidence to indicate that attachments can be installed safely and in full compliance with Commission requirements.” The proposed changes don't enhance CPUC safety provisions and might "interfere with the utilities' safety compliance by imposing time constraints that could limit the utilities’ presence during surveys and make-ready work performed by attachers,” and it’s unclear how the commission would enforce OTMR, the division said. Adopting OTMR would be “a sweeping change that should not be adopted until thoroughly and thoughtfully vetted,” commented Southern California Edison. OTMR “has serious safety implications,” the energy company said. More study is needed, agreed San Diego Gas & Electric. Communications Workers of America and the Coalition of California Utility Employees said one-touch policy “jeopardizes public and worker safety and threatens good jobs.” Telecom companies supported adoption. "OTMR Rules, which have been widely implemented across the country, have proven effective to promote efficiency for pole owners and attachers and to reduce barriers to wireless deployment by decreasing siting delays,” said CTIA. Frontier Communications, Consolidated Communications and AT&T said OTMR in California "would bring consistency and efficiency to the process for all pole owners and attachers who operate in jurisdictions where the FCC rules currently apply.” It lets the CPUC “take advantage of the FCC’s experience, developed over more than a decade, which led to rules that were further refined as the FCC learned from the experience of some other state commissions,” said Crown Castle. It will reduce delays, said ExteNet.
Communications Workers of America wants state commissions to regulate broadband and VoIP, union officials said on a Monday webinar. CWA developed a model bill to undo any state deregulatory laws and direct commissions to exercise broadband and VoIP authority in areas including resiliency, public safety, consumer protection and data collection and transparency. State agencies could conduct third-party audits of facilities and infrastructure under the bill. New York state Sen. Sean Ryan (D), now sponsoring such a bill (SB-5117), said broadband is a utility and should be regulated that way. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgency of universal broadband, he said. Ryan’s bill is the first state measure to follow the union’s approach, said CWA Research Director Nell Geiser. Colorado and California have bills that “go some of the way towards our goals,” said Geiser. CWA is active in about 15 other states pushing for similar changes, which the union expects will be a multiyear effort, she said. NARUC advised CWA on the bill, but the state commissioner association doesn’t lobby at the state level, said Geiser. CWA and state legislators are directly engaging with commissions in specific states, she added.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed to hold in abeyance a California Public Utilities Commission challenge to the FCC’s October net neutrality remand order (see 2010270035). The order was approved 3-2, with only one commissioner who voted yes, Brendan Carr, still at the FCC, the agency told the court in a filing (in Pacer) last week in docket 21-1016. Jessica Rosenworcel, who dissented, is now acting chairwoman. The FCC noted that four petitions for reconsideration are before the commission: “In view of these circumstances, placing this case in abeyance to allow time for the newly constituted Commission to consider the petitions for agency reconsideration would be appropriate.” The CPUC supported the move, and the court agreed (in Pacer).
The Vermont Public Utility Commission granted Comcast's motion to reconsider its 2018 ruling that interconnected VoIP is a telecom service under federal law and won't proceed to phase two of the proceeding, the PUC said in a modified order Monday in docket 7316 (see 1803070060). "Although we are not persuaded that the analysis of FCC precedent in our previous order was in error, we conclude that a determination that VoIP services are telecommunications services under federal law would conflict with the FCC policy of targeted VoIP regulation," the order said. An attorney for Comcast didn't respond to a request for comment. “We are extremely pleased that the Vermont PUC has paused its decision to consider new regulations for VoIP providers, recognizing that a national regulatory framework is consistent with FCC policy,” said Glenn Richards, counsel to the Voice on the Net Coalition, which participated as an amicus in the proceeding.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission adopted one-touch, make-ready and rules for unused or abandoned joint use utility poles. Commissioners voted 3-0 Tuesday to amend the state pole attachments law in Maine, a state that earlier reverse preempted FCC pole attachment authority. The order in case 2020-00281 is "a carefully vetted, fair and reasonable conclusion” based on input from about two dozen commenters, said Commissioner Bruce Williamson at the PUC’s webcast meeting. Adopting OTMR will help facilitate broadband rollout in Maine, said Chairman Phil Bartlett. The order wasn’t immediately available.
Frontier Communications supported a proposed edit by the California Public Utilities Commission to a condition adopted in the agency's March 18 OK of Frontier’s bankruptcy reorganization. The revised condition would require the provider to build fiber-to-the-premise to 150,000 locations in places with a maximum internal rate of return of 20%, with at least 10% of those locations in places where Frontier is the only fixed broadband provider. It would also require that at least 10% of Frontier funds allocated to that fiber buildout go to locations outside urbanized areas (see 2103290011). In Monday comments in docket A.20-05-010, Frontier urged commissioners to adopt the edit at its April 15 meeting, saying it “will further the Commission’s goal of improving broadband availability in underserved areas.” The CPUC’s Public Advocates Office and The Utility Reform Network also supported the proposed revision. Frontier asked the CPUC to change two other conditions from its March OK (see 2103180064). Remove local governments from a condition requiring that tribes and localities get a right of first offer to buy any property divested by the carrier in their areas, Frontier said. Don't retroactively apply a new 25/3 Mbps speed standard for areas funded by the California Advanced Services Fund where Frontier completed projects to the previous 10/1 Mbps standard, it said. The California Emerging Technology Fund agreed the CPUC shouldn’t retroactively apply 25/3 Mbps. Communications Workers of America urged the CPUC to scrap the first offer right for both tribes and local governments because it "threatens employee jobs and could degrade service quality.”
Connecticut pole attachment applicants could pursue self-help during the engineering phase by directly retaining third-party contractors, under a proposed decision Monday by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) in docket 19-01-52. That will reduce delays in obtaining make-ready estimates, PURA said. Self-help applicants would have to hire a contractor from a preapproved list maintained by single pole administrators (SPAs) and would be responsible for completing the entire engineering phase, including survey and make-ready design in both electric and communications spaces, the agency said. PURA set a $305 fee for pre-engineered applications, which the SPA and ILEC must review within 10 business days, it said. The proposal would ban volume caps on applications and disallow SPAs from requiring notices of intent to apply if they effectively extend the time frame for engineering and make ready beyond 90 days, PURA said. The agency would generally allow attachments below ILEC facilities and on the field side of utility poles, “except where ILEC attachments have copper wires,” it said. Exceptions to the proposal are due April 13, said PURA’s docket schedule. The agency tentatively plans April 19 oral arguments and an April 21 vote by commissioners.
Washington, D.C., Councilmembers backed a broadband bill to require a plan to upgrade internet in D.C. neighborhoods with slow speeds and address affordability gaps. The bill (B24-0200) would create a Digital Equity Division within the Office of the Chief Technology Officer and give the division six months to come up with a plan. “We have to recognize the internet is as essential to our lives as water service and electric or gas service,” said sponsor Councilmember Charles Allen (D) Tuesday. “I want the District to move with urgency to ensure that people don’t just have access, but have connections to high-speed internet.” The bill is co-sponsored by nine of the council's 12 other members, including Chairman Phil Mendelson (D).