Worker and consumer groups sought to tighten conditions on Frontier Communications’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization as the list of remaining state OKs dwindled to two. The deal got FCC and West Virginia approvals last week (see 2101150018 and 2101140032). The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said Tuesday the deal may move forward with Frontier’s voluntary commitments, including $50 million over four years on service quality, maintenance and upgrades, and fiber to at least 15,000 locations by 2028. The promises “adequately address the troubling trend regarding Frontier’s infraction rate,” PUC Secretary Rosemary Chiavetta wrote in docket A-2020-3020004. Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) plans to vote Feb. 3 on last week’s draft decision. Attorney General William Tong (D) mostly supports proposed conditions, especially requiring fiber to 100,000 more customers by 2025, he commented Wednesday in docket 20-04-31. Tong urged PURA to lengthen to five years from two the term of a jobs condition not to permit involuntary attrition of its workforce or moving the corporate headquarters. Communications Workers of America said Connecticut isn’t getting as good a deal as California or West Virginia. Require Frontier to deploy fiber to 200,000 locations, spend at least $400 million in capital by 2025 and keep technician and customer service jobs, CWA said. Frontier supported the PURA draft even though it said the headquarters requirement may exceed the state regulator’s jurisdiction. Require the telco to address consumer complaints about copper service problems and call center performance and to target fiber commitments, AARP said. “Absent a more specific commitment, Frontier [could] focus on large businesses, and the most profitable locations.” At the California Public Utilities Commission, where a vote is expected in March, the Greenlining Institute and Center for Accessible Technology commented Wednesday that Frontier’s settlement with CWA and other consumer advocates “fails to ensure that the transaction will specifically benefit communities of color and persons with disabilities.” Those groups aren’t necessarily covered by a condition for low-income neighborhoods, they said in docket A.20-05-010. Adopt that settlement and two separate ones with the Yurok Tribe and California Emerging Technology Fund, the carrier urged. The tribe supports the CWA and CETF pacts if its own agreement is accepted, it said here and here. Comments on the Yurok settlement are due Jan. 27, ruled Administrative Law Judge Peter Wercinski.

Frontier Communications got West Virginia's OK of its bankruptcy reorganization, with conditions. The Public Service Commission cleared a Dec. 18 settlement Friday with PSC staff, the agency’s Consumer Advocate Division and Communications Workers of America. The telco promised to spend $200 million by Dec. 31 in West Virginia and deploy fiber to 150,000 locations. Another Friday order required service quality reporting in response to a state audit in case 18-0291-T-P (see 2008060027). That will help the company “correct its course as necessary to assure improved quality service to its customers and improved relations with its employees,” it said. PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane said the orders “allow Frontier to proceed with its bankruptcy reorganization, emerge a stronger corporate structure and make much needed investments in West Virginia’s internet infrastructure.” The carrier got FCC clearance Thursday and needs OK from California, Connecticut and Pennsylvania commissions. Don’t let California get a better deal than West Virginia, the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council wrote the PSC earlier Friday in docket 20-0400-T-PC. "West Virginia has been on the receiving end of empty promises in the past and we ask that the Commission exercise its jurisdiction to the fullest extent allowed.” The telco made fiber promises to states that waited to clear the bankrupt carrier's reorganization, including fiber to 150,000 West Virginia locations and 350,000 California locations (see 2101140032).

A federal judge delayed argument in DOJ’s challenge to California’s net neutrality law to Feb. 23 at 1:30 p.m. Argument at U.S. District Court for Eastern California had been scheduled Jan. 26, though there were questions because President-elect Joe Biden’s DOJ is expected to quickly withdraw from the suit commenced by President Donald Trump’s administration (see 2101070067). In a minute order Friday, the court cited “overwhelming caseload” and complex issues in the case. Parties should meet after Wednesday and file a conference statement by Feb. 9 “informing the Court whether the United States of America intends to pursue this case further, or whether, upon review by the Biden Administration, it will file a stipulation or motion to dismiss this lawsuit,” the court said (in Pacer).

The California Public Utilities Commission agreed to a matching process for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) to leverage up to $695 million in FCC funding from the recently completed Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Auction 904 (see 2012140042). At a virtual meeting Thursday, commissioners voted unanimously for that and for separate orders to clear $8.64 million in CASF grants to bring broadband to 1,477 unserved households. Under the matching program, the CPUC would award CASF funding to RDOF auction winners at a rate of 10%-20% of Auction 904. The agency delayed until the Feb. 11 meeting its votes on a T-Mobile/Sprint monitoring proposal and a proposed $1.3 million fine for 2019 Frontier service quality failures.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission voted 4-0 to clear a Lumen settlement resolving a state investigation into consumer complaints about phone and broadband installation delays. The former CenturyLink will pay $32,050 for alleged rule violations, the PUC said Thursday. Customers claimed they waited 150 days past the five-day required time frame for phone installation and 105 days longer than the 10-day time frame for broadband installation, said the agency’s order. Lumen "worked diligently" with the PUC to reach settlement and resolve claims, a spokesperson said.

Washington state’s attorney general office said it's “encouraged” by changes to a privacy bill that failed in two previous years due to enforcement and other questions (see 2003120035). The AG office recommends adding a sunset date to the right to cure in SB-5062, and seeks a private right of action, said AG office Legislative Director Yasmin Trudeau at a Senate Environment, Energy and Technology virtual hearing Thursday. Consumer advocates raised concerns that the bill, with opt-out rather than opt-in protections, puts too much onus on the consumer to exercise their rights compared with companies. It provides an “illusion of privacy protections,” with too many exemptions and not enough teeth, said American Civil Liberties Union-Washington Technology and Liberty Project Manager Jennifer Lee: That “corporate-centric approach” failed in previous sessions. Including a private right of action needn’t lead to a flood of complaints if appropriately limited, said Washington State Association for Justice Government Affairs Director Larry Shannon. The bill fails to cover Google and Facebook, while preempting local governments from making stronger protections, said Consumer Federation of America Director-Consumer Protection and Privacy Susan Grant. SB-5062 builds on the General Data Protection Regulation and California Privacy Right Act, said Microsoft Senior Director-Public Policy Ryan Harkins. Business groups including the Washington Technology Industry Association and Washington Retail Association also supported the bill. The bill would exempt nonprofits for five years, but the American Heart Association thinks it should never apply, said Senior Attorney Kristen Knauf. Millions of dollars in compliance costs mean that much less funding for cardiovascular research, she warned. Sponsor Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D) said he worked hard to incorporate suggestions: “This has been a long two-and-a-half years on this issue.” The committee plans to meet again Jan. 21 on SB-5062.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau turned down petitions for reconsideration by Custer, Oklahoma, and Tolleson, Arizona, after their licenses were canceled for failure to meet construction deadlines. Both cities were told they could file new, properly coordinated applications.

Lumen restored 911 service in eight Minnesota counties where dispatchers couldn’t hear callers’ voices on emergency calls Monday, said the Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Emergency Communication Networks division. The division reported 911 service restored at 9:20 p.m. It reported earlier that it was alerted to problems at 3 p.m. Affected counties were Dodge, Freeborn, Mower, Olmsted, Rice, Steele, Wabasha and Winona. “Some customers in southeastern Minnesota experienced a disruption in 911 service,” a Lumen spokesperson said Tuesday. “All services have been restored.” Affected callers could hear the 911 dispatcher, but dispatchers couldn’t hear callers from 12:56-8:08 p.m., the division said in a Tuesday update. As a workaround, public safety answering points used displayed caller information to contact callers over administrative lines. PSAPs urged people to use 10-digit nonemergency numbers, and text-to-911 was working, the division said. No emergency calls went unanswered, it said. Lumen initially blamed a fiber cut, and now blames “a bad card that supports a large national fiber” in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the division said. Engineers restored service by rebooting the faulty equipment. Lumen’s investigation continues and will provide a “reason for outage” in three to five business days, per its contract. The outage occurred during the final year of the state’s five-year contract with the former CenturyLink.

Mobileye crossed a “threshold” and can build high-definition autonomous-vehicle (AV) maps, said CEO Amnon Shashua, senior vice president of its Intel parent. “We’re basically mapping the world, all automatically, everything done in the cloud.” It plans deployments in Detroit, Paris and Tokyo, he told a CES media briefing. “If we figure out how” to land regulatory OK, Mobileye will “deploy” in New York City in months, he said Monday. New York State Department of Transportation officials didn’t respond to questions. Self-driving robotaxis will be “somewhat of a game-changer when they become ubiquitous,” said Shashua. “Removing the driver from the equation could reduce the cost of transportation considerably, even rivaling the cost of public transportation.” He thinks affordable consumer AVs at scale with Level 4 autonomy -- one notch down from full autonomy -- are possible in 2025: “We’ll have a number of years of practicing from a regulatory point of view. Regulation is critical here. It’s difficult to leap directly to a consumer level from a regulatory point of view. Going through a regulation of a fleet is much easier.”

California Public Utilities Commissioners may vote Feb. 11 on a 72-hour backup power requirement and other resiliency rules for wireline providers proposed by CPUC President Marybel Batjer. Thursday’s proposed decision in docket 18-03-011 would require wireline providers “develop comprehensive resiliency strategies to prepare for catastrophic disasters and power outages” for facilities in certain high fire threat districts (HFTD). Providers would get eight months for implementation. About 40% of battery backup power at California wireline facilities in such tier 2 and 3 HFTDs lasted zero to eight hours, while 27% lasted 13-24 hours and 26% lasted 25-71 hours, said a Communications Division report Thursday. Less than 3% had at least 72 hours of battery backup power. Carriers challenged the CPUC's requiring 72-hour backup power for wireless (see 2009100053).