The California Public Utilities Commission didn't violate cable’s due process when it proposed conditions on CLEC entry to 13 small LEC markets, said a revised proposal released Tuesday in docket R.11-11-007. It contains no big changes to the item teed up for commissioners' Thursday meeting. The California Cable & Telecommunications Association called the proposed decision procedurally improper, discriminatory and burdensome (see 2007280058). The CPUC isn’t required to “identify before issuance of a proposed decision every possible action that we might take,” said the revised draft. Proposed conditions are reasonable and balanced, and CCTA failed to quantify claimed time-and-cost burdens, it said.

The California Assembly Communications Committee voted 9-3 for increasing the state broadband standard to 25 Mbps up and down. The committee voted 9-2 to clear SB-431 requiring 72 hours backup power like the California Public Utilities Commission required last month (see 2007160065). At a Monday hearing livestreamed from Sacramento, Vice Chair Jay Obernolte raised concerns that SB-1130 would require a “massive additional source of revenue.” The Republican also opposed “putting our thumb on the scale” in favor of fiber and questioned the need for symmetrical speeds because he claimed most consumers need fast downloads only. Sponsor Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) said the bill would also support hybrid-technology networks, so cable companies could meet the standards. Cable providers claimed no existing provider in California could meet 25/25. Charter offers 940/35 Mbps speeds but its “entire service territory would be considered unserved because we do not offer a service tier package of 25/25,” said Senior Director-Government Affairs West Kara Bush. Gonzalez aide George Soares told us later that statement was false because the bill doesn’t require speeds to be symmetrical, just that each the download and upload components are higher than 25 Mbps. Charter doesn't "believe the language is clear," a spokesperson responded. The CPUC has 52 pending California Advanced Services Fund applications, meaning there won’t be any money left to fund SB-1130, said California Cable and Telecommunication Association President Carolyn McIntyre. She and Bush warned that open-access rules would violate federal law. There was confusion over what speeds the bill actually required when sponsor Gonzalez misstated that her bill defines a served area as having 25/3 Mbps. She later corrected that the bill was changed last week to 25 symmetrical (see 2007280043). Wireless providers are addressing resiliency without rules proposed by SB-431 on backup power and have valid concerns that rules will get in the way, said Assemblymember Jim Patterson (R). Sen. Mike McGuire (D) said the sponsors accommodated industry in several ways, including by making a network-wide requirement rather than applying rules to all cell sites. Industry didn’t get everything it wants but saw “significant movement toward them,” said Chair Miguel Santiago (D). The bills go next to the Appropriations Committee.

USTelecom, NTCA and WTA executives urged leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee not to advance legislation aimed at awarding some Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Phase I funding before the auction’s late October start date. The executives don’t mention the “proposed legislation” by name but decry its bid to eliminate a requirement companies be designated eligible telecom carriers to qualify for RDOF money. A revised version of the Rural Broadband Acceleration Act (HR-7447/S-4201) would do that. “To the extent some believe the ETC designation process may be outdated or in need of recalibration to better reflect a broadband world, this is a policy discussion worth having -- and reasonable minds may disagree,” said NTCA CEO Shirley Bloomfield, USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter and WTA Executive Vice President Kelly Worthington in a letter to Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Maria Cantwell. “But that discussion should neither alter nor undermine the course of an auction process that is already substantially underway, nor should it do so in a way that benefits only some program participants.” HR-7447/S-4201 has drawn opposition from others, including NARUC President Brandon Presley (see 2007090051).

A California Senate panel cleared a bill to streamline permitting of emergency generators for wireless cellsites. The Senate Governance and Finance Committee voted 7-0 Wednesday for AB-2421. It goes next to the Appropriations committee. The California Public Utilities Commission this month required generators with 72-hour backup power at cellsites (see 2007160065). A bill to require the same awaits hearing in the Assembly Communications Committee (see 2007280043).

Litigation over California’s net neutrality law will resume in early August. Judge John Mendez approved (in Pacer) a proposed schedule submitted by the parties Thursday in U.S. District Court for Eastern California. The state agreed in October 2018 not to enforce SB-822 while the Mozilla appeal of the FCC’s order rescinding the 2015 national rules was pending (see 1810260045). The lawsuits by DOJ and ISPs may move forward now that Mozilla and others let pass a July 6 deadline to appeal to the Supreme Court (see 2007070012). The government and the ISP group would file amended complaints and renewed motions for preliminary injunction by Aug. 5, under the stipulation (in Pacer) jointly agreed to by plaintiffs DOJ and CTIA, NCTA, USTelecom and ACA Connects. The parties know "a number of non-parties" plan to join as amici.

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska scheduled a technical conference Aug. 10, with a possible follow-up Aug. 14, on what general powers it maintains after a state law deregulated telecom (see 2006100048). The virtual workshop won’t cover inmate calling services, RCA said in the order distributed Wednesday.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission moved to a new building at 26 Katherine Drive, Hallowell, it said Tuesday. It's in the same city as the previous building.

Expand broadband to improve rural healthcare in communities most hurt by coal’s decline, recommended North Carolina’s broadband office and the state health department. “A stark economic, broadband, and health divide exists between those living in one of the 20 coal-impacted counties in North Carolina’s Appalachian region and the average North Carolinian.” If telehealth were widely available, more than 71,600 households wouldn’t have the internet to access it, Friday's study said.

Alaska is unlikely to order an inmate calling services rate case “any time soon,” even though the Regulatory Commission of Alaska regulates intrastate rates and tariffs, an RCA spokesperson emailed Monday. NARUC joined the FCC last week in asking state commission members to review ICS intrastate rates but finishing the job in many states could be challenging (see 2007230065 and 2007240045). Alaska Department of Corrections (ADOC) contracting authority affects RCA’s practical ability to exercise ICS authority, the RCA spokesperson said. “ADOC gets to decide the particulars of inmate calling privileges and the security equipment necessary to operate safe telecommunications services in a confinement environment,” which “impacts the rate inputs tremendously and the Commission has been reticent to gainsay any of those representations from ADOC and its contracting agent, Securus.” ADOC voiced concerns to RCA about finding and retaining a service provider, as competitive bidding is more challenging in Alaska because it has fewer corrections facilities than other states, the commission spokesperson said. RCA staff plans to address ICS after completing non-ICS rules in a telecom deregulation docket (see 2006100048), “but likely those will merely affirm the Commission’s ongoing, limited regulatory oversight of inmate telecommunications service and would likely only codify existing conditions placed on Securus’ certificate, including indigent calling allowances and the tracking and submission of Alaska-specific cost information for future rate development.”

Federal officials staged “a militarized counter-insurgent effort" to "suppress" protesters and residents in Portland, Oregon, said dozens of groups Friday. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, Media Justice and Free Press signed. They dismissed the federal government’s claim that U.S. marshals and Customs and Border Protection officers were protecting federal buildings.