The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission will weigh competitive classification of telecom retail services at its Thursday meeting, said an agenda released Wednesday. An NPRM in L-2018-3001391 failed by a 2-2 vote at last month’s meeting (see 2007160040).

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska may close its telecom deregulation rulemaking at the agency's Sept. 23 meeting. At a teleconferenced Wednesday meeting, RCA Chairman Robert Pickett supported Common Carrier Specialist David Parrish’s suggestion to vote at the agency’s second September meeting since it will come after the agency’s yearly review of eligible telecom carrier filings. Before RCA can resolve docket R-19-002, commissioners must agree what general powers they retain after 2019 deregulation law SB-83, or seek clarification from the legislature, Parrish said. Commissioners have been weighing that question for months (see 2006100048), and Commissioner Daniel Sullivan said Wednesday that sorting out how far the legislature intended to go remains challenging. Clarifying legislation may be needed, he said.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) revised FY 2021 budget would allocate $500,000 to the Civic Information Consortium, Free Press said Tuesday. Free Press proposed the nonprofit to promote local journalism, but the group has faced funding roadblocks since it was approved in 2018 (see 2001160056).

A California bill requiring 72-hours backup power at cellsites apparently stalled last week as wildfires spread across the state. The Senate-passed SB-431 was held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee and is probably dead for this year, said Rural County Representatives of California Legislative Advocate Tracy Rhine Monday. Tellus Venture Associates President Steve Blum blogged Tuesday that no reason was given for stopping the bill, though opposition came mainly from wireless carriers and the cable industry. The wireless industry last week sought rehearing of the California Public Utilities Commission making the same requirement through regulations (see 2008200038). “There’s little chance that the CPUC will grant the mobile industry’s ‘application for rehearing’, but filing it is the first procedural step on the path to a legal challenge,” Blum said. SB-431 sponsor state Sen. Mike McGuire (D) didn’t comment Tuesday. The CPUC said Tuesday it may vote Sept. 24 on adopting a draft reporting template for wireless communications resiliency plans as required by the agency’s July order.

Teeing up discussion on implementing an Oregon law requiring VoIP and wireless contribution to state USF, Public Utility Commission staff Monday released draft rules in docket AR-640 to discuss at an Aug. 31 workshop. The Oregon PUC aims to finalize rules by Jan. 1 (see 2008110047).

“Something has got to change” at the District of Columbia’s Office of Unified Communications, D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B06 Commissioner Tiffani Johnson tweeted Sunday, citing a report on Twitter by Dave Statter, a former journalist, alleging OUC 911 dispatching mistakes. Statter cited OpenMHz audio of a radio transmission that day in which a dispatcher appeared initially to direct an ambulance to an incorrect highway exit to find a person down. ANC 4B01 Commissioner Evan Yeats also has raised concerns about OUC errors, prompting the Office of D.C. Auditor to consider a probe next year. OUC didn’t comment Monday.

Netflix and Hulu are defying Ohio law by running their streaming services through “wireline facilities located at least in part in the public right-of-way,” without proper state authorization and payment of 5% quarterly “video service provider” fees to local municipalities, alleged Maple Heights, Ohio, in a complaint (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Their failure to seek authorization from the Ohio commerce director and give localities 10 days’ advance written notice before activating their streaming services doesn't relieve them of the obligation to pay the franchise fees, said the complaint, seeking class-action status on behalf of other Ohio municipalities. The suburb is about 10 miles southeast of downtown Cleveland. Its lawsuit seeks back payment of the unpaid fees with interest, plus declaratory judgment that Netflix and Hulu are violating state law. The same team of lawyers filed a nearly identical complaint Aug. 11 in Texarkana for New Boston, Texas, seeking class-action status for all Texas municipalities (see 2008120001). Netflix and Hulu didn’t comment Monday.

California cable and wireline providers resisted statewide backup power rules sought by consumer and county groups. Installing "ubiquitous wireline backup power would be extraordinarily burdensome, result in little resiliency benefit, and cause extensive congestion, noise, and air quality impacts in local communities,” AT&T said in Friday reply comments in docket R.18-03-011. The California Public Utilities Commission should take a more targeted approach to wireline resiliency than it did for wireless, "one that focuses on the most critical customers and the California residents most in need of a wireline option, given the nearly ubiquitous availability of wireless service,” the carrier said. “The power needs of wireline networks are more widely distributed than wireless networks, and the benefits of backup power in wireline networks are severely limited by the lack of backup power at the customers’ premises.” The California Cable and Telecommunications Association urged support for its plan to provide 72 hours of backup power to wireline facilities in tier 2 and 3 high fire-threat districts (HFTDs). Reject consumer and county groups' “sweeping, infeasible, and counterproductive” proposal to extend the requirement statewide and to residential customers, CCTA urged. Few customers have backup power sources for their home wireline equipment, and "it would take massive, cost-prohibitive reengineering to maintain power throughout their cable networks for 72 hours, create unacceptable risks, and cause unacceptable harms to surrounding areas and communities,” the cable group said. Most Californians use wireless services in emergencies, but the CPUC required wireless providers to provide backup power only in tiers 1 and 2, CCTA added. The CPUC can’t expect no outages during disasters, CalTel and other rural LECs said. “Some level of network impairment is inevitable, especially in networks that serve rugged, remote terrain.” Rules requiring large spending “will either take away from other priorities -- such as deployment of broadband-capable facilities or customer service -- or it will risk creating an unfunded mandate whose costs cannot be reasonably or efficiently recovered through the rate case process,” the RLECs said. The California State Association of Counties reminded the CPUC not to forget “numerous communities within California that do not have sufficient wireless coverage and ... are limited in how they receive emergency messages.” The CPUC’s Public Advocates Office proposed “a phased approach by which wireline service providers are first required to provide backup power in Tier 2 and Tier 3 HFTDs within six months of the adoption of the decision or by May 2021, whichever is sooner.” Providers would have to cover outside areas within a year, the office said. Carriers are challenging the CPUC’s July wireless resiliency rules as wildfires spread across the state (see 2008200038).

The public may comment on an overlay for the 202 area code at a Sept. 1 virtual hearing, the District of Columbia Public Service Commission said Friday. The North American Numbering Plan Administrator projects phone numbers in the D.C. area code will run out in Q3 2022 without relief. The hearing is at 2 p.m. EDT. The commission also will accept written comments through Sept. 4.

Two fiscal committees cleared broadband bills to raise California’s speed standard under the state's broadband infrastructure fund (see 2008190008 and 2008180045). The Assembly Appropriations Committee voted 13-5 Thursday for SB-1130 to require at least 25 Mbps download and 25 Mbps upload speeds. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 5-2 the same day for AB-570 to require at least 25/3 Mbps. The bills go next to the floor with an Aug. 31 deadline to clear the legislature.