Maine’s cable à la carte law violates the First Amendment, Free State Foundation President Randolph May and Senior Fellow Andrew Long said Friday. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering Maine’s appeal of a lower court granting Comcast and programmers preliminary injunction on such grounds (see 2006190007).

New York officials are investigating Twitter’s hack (see 2007160074), Attorney General Letitia James (D) said Thursday evening. The hack “raises serious concerns about data security and how platforms like Twitter could be used to harm public debate,” she said. A company spokesperson Friday cited Twitter's ongoing updates on the matter.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities won’t require Windstream notify every municipality and utility in the state individually about the pending bankruptcy reorganization, said in a 5-0 Wednesday order in docket TM20060388. The company promised instead to put a notice in regional newspapers. The carrier told the board that complying with the usual requirement would have required “employment of significant support-staff resources, which are not available in today's pandemic times,” the order said. The company’s transfer-of-control application is pending at the New Jersey board. Windstream has six state OKs on 20 submitted applications, a spokesperson said. Replies on its FCC application were due July 9 (see 2006260002).

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission declined to advance an NPRM (or NOPR) on competitive classification of telecom retail services. The notice in docket L-2018-3001391 failed by a 2-2 vote at a Thursday commission meeting, while commissioners voted 4-0 on a related motion by Vice Chairman David Sweet to partly grant and partly deny rural local exchange carriers’ request for waivers from the same regulations under review in the notice, a PUC spokesperson said. The votes followed a February commission ruling to extend waivers of certain regulations for Verizon through 2022 (see 2002270009). “The NOPR does not go far enough, as I believe there are additional opportunities to modernize our telephone regulations ... without compromising important consumer protections,” said Commissioner John Coleman. He wants to bring ILECs “closer to regulatory parity with their unregulated competitors,” he said. Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille said she supports most of the notice’s recommendations but seeks to better reconcile “the need to address more transient technological and market changes with the more permanent statutory obligation” requiring the PUC “to address the safety, adequacy, reliability and privacy of telecommunications services and the ordering, installation, suspension, termination and restoration of any telecommunications service.” Dutrieuille said “absolute parity may not be attainable” between ILECs and other providers: “ILECs alone have the critical and important carrier of last resort (COLR) obligation to serve all consumers within their respective territory.”

Frontier Communications settled with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) to resolve three investigations of allegedly deceptive, misleading and fraudulent internet billing and sales practices, the AG said Monday. The telco agreed to spend at least $10 million over four years to improve its network and pay $750,000 in restitution to customers. It agreed to fully disclose internet prices to new customers before they take service and let many current customers cancel service without penalty. “For too many Minnesotans, Frontier broke its promises,” said Ellison, who began investigating in 2018 after getting complaints from customers. The AG alleged Frontier overcharged customers by billing them more than they were quoted, failing to disclose fees and surcharges in sale presentations and ads, and billing customers for services not delivered. The carrier “is pleased to have this matter resolved," a spokesperson emailed. The Public Utilities Commission cleared a separate state probe in October (see 1910170052). The carrier paid Washington state $900,000 earlier this month to end a probe (see 2007080039). States are looking into the company’s bankruptcy (see 2007140042).

A New York state bill seeking a broadband availability study cleared the Assembly Corporations, Authorities and Commissions Committee Monday. A-6679 is “very important in light of COVID and so many children having to learn online,” said Chair Amy Paulin (D) at the livestreamed virtual hearing. It would direct the Public Service Commission ask the public rather than rely completely on FCC availability data submitted by companies, she said. The panel sent the bill to the Rules Committee. A similar measure (S-5696) awaits full Senate action.

Colorado is reworking its method for collecting local 911 fees. Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed HB-1293 Friday to replace a system in which 58 local 911 governing bodies set their own surcharges and must ask the Public Utilities Commission for approval to charge more than 70 cents. The new law requires the PUC by Jan. 1 to adjust the cap annually for inflation, and establishes a separate statewide 911 surcharge, up to 50 cents monthly on phone bills, to be distributed to the local 911 bodies based on the size of their system. Prepaid wireless will be treated like landline, wireless and VoIP. The drawback to the old approach was that rural and mountain communities with small populations didn’t have enough subscribers to produce enough revenue for the size of their 911 systems, “which don't scale well at the small end and oftentimes have to be bigger than their population would indicate due to tourist traffic,” state 911 Program Manager Daryl Branson emailed Monday. The new approach will provide more funding to all local 911 governing bodies, with proportionally more support to rural and mountain areas, he said. HB-1293 is expected to increase revenue to local governments by $3.2 million in FY 2020-21, $6.5 million the following fiscal year, said a June 8 fiscal note by Colorado Legislative Council staff.

Lifeline eligible telecom carriers offered the FCC an alternative to revoking Texas’ opt-out certification from the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD). The National Lifeline Association (NaLA) proposed revoking opt-out to remedy a state process ETCs say is preventing reimbursement (see 2007020033). In comments posted Monday in docket 11-42, TracFone agreed with NaLA that the Texas system doesn’t comply with NLAD opt-out requirements or federal Lifeline rules. Rather than revoke the PUC’s opt-out, the FCC should clarify that the Texas low-income discount administrator’s (LIDA) real-time verification process using an application programming interface between LIDA and ETCs can be used for reimbursement, rather than rely on an end-of-month report that doesn’t include subscribers who enroll in the second half of the month, TracFone said. Allowing only the report “has resulted in Texas ETCs being the subject of unwarranted audits and demands for return of USF support by” Universal Service Administrative Co., and FCC probes and enforcement actions, it said. The current situation harms Lifeline ETCs and customers, but revoking opt-out could cause disruption, so clarify the real-time API approach may be used, Q Link Wireless asked. If the FCC won’t revoke opt-out status, condition Texas keeping it, said TruConnect. “The current trajectory will result not only in improper underpayments to ETCs, but also enforcement and audit actions based upon erroneous legal and factual conclusions. These results abuse the dwindling group of carriers still willing and able to provide critical Lifeline services in Texas.” The Texas PUC is looking into the problems, saying ETCs should have come to the state agency first (see 2007100027).

The Kentucky Public Service Commission increased state USF payments to eligible wireless carriers providing unlimited voice to Lifeline customers. Effective Aug. 1, monthly payments will be $8 per customer through July 31, 2021, a $4.50 increase, the PSC said about Friday's order in docket 2016-00059. The commission will review the increase’s impact March 1 but said Kentucky USF can sustain it for slightly more than a year before the surcharge would have to be increased. The PSC said increasing payments for more data “would deplete the KUSF in the absence of an increased surcharge, and that the benefits of temporarily providing payments for additional voice outweigh the benefits of providing payments for additional data.” Some Kentucky Lifeline providers asked in May comments for higher payments to provide more data (see 2005260063).

Lifeline providers should have come to Texas commissioners before asking the FCC to revoke opt-out certification from the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD), the Texas Public Utility Commission said in comments due Friday at the FCC in docket 11-42. The National Lifeline Association “did not discuss or provide any advance notice of its petition” with the PUC or the Low Income Discount Administrator (LIDA), the commission said: “It is possible that their primary complaint could have been resolved informally.” The PUC and LIDA were already looking into reporting problems raised by NaLA, it said. On Lifeline providers’ identity and address complaints, the PUC said it “remains willing to discuss improvements to its systems and processes” but doesn’t “believe significant changes to these processes are warranted.” PUC members voted last week to file comments opposing the NaLA petition (see 2007020033). NaLA later told the FCC the PUC appeared to be addressing some of its concerns (see 2007080043). In other comments Friday, TAG Mobile supported NaLA’s petition.