Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority “should be concerned” that a Frontier Communications internal policy may be causing unreasonable delays to pole attachments, the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel commented Monday. PURA received comments that day in docket 19-01-52 on a NetSpeed-Frontier dispute about the bigger company's requirements on where third parties may attach facilities on poles. NetSpeed complained Frontier’s policy lets the company reserve the lowest spots for its own attachments, ban attachers from placing theirs lower, and assess charges including for relocating Frontier and other attachments. OCC and NetSpeed agreed PURA should consider the issue as part of a broader investigation of pole attachment. Frontier’s practice isn’t “grounded in safety and engineering principles,” NetSpeed commented. Many states with pole-attachment jurisdiction “expressly found that reserving the lowest point on the pole for the telephone company is unjustified or placed a substantial burden on the pole owner to justify such practices on a case by case basis,” it said. The New England Cable and Telecommunications Association agreed Frontier should “follow reasonable, non-discriminatory attachment positioning practices that will promote competition and broadband deployment in Connecticut.” The telco said it’s “standard and accepted industry practice for ILECs such as Frontier to maintain the lowest position on utility poles,” for “public safety and efficient and cost-effective management of pole attachments.” The pole owner said it knows of no other state that prevents the practice: “Permitting third party licensees to choose where to place their facilities on the pole would both erode Frontier’s ownership interests and its ability to manage the poles.”

The Colorado General Assembly passed a telehealth bill (SB-212) to expand Medicaid reimbursement (see 2006090049). The Senate voted 35-0 Saturday to concur with the House, which passed an amended bill 64-1 Friday. It goes next to Gov. Jared Polis (D). Polis hasn't reviewed the bill, a spokesperson said Monday.

Maryland took administrative action against AT&T and subsidiary Cricket Wireless for alleged deceptive marketing, state Attorney General Brian Frosh (D) said Monday. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 9 at the state's Office of Administrative Hearings in Hunt Valley. The AG office’s Consumer Protection Division alleged the carriers violated the Maryland Consumer Protection Act by failing to inform consumers that their CDMA cellphones would stop working when Cricket combined with AT&T and moved customers to the parent’s GSM network. Cricket knowingly sold the phones in the year before the companies combined and after it, the state claimed. “This practice, we allege, was undertaken to maximize profit from the sale of expensive smartphones without regard for the harm it would cause consumers,” said Frosh. The AG sought restitution, an injunction, civil penalties and legal costs. "Following the acquisition, we smoothly transitioned customers to our network under a plan approved by the FCC and that included valuable incentives for new devices," an AT&T spokesperson emailed. "We are surprised by this action and intend to disprove the allegations."

State utility commissioners must bring the “same sense of urgency” to communications that they have for grid modernization, in the wake of COVID-19, District of Columbia Public Service Commission Chairman Willie Phillips said Monday on a Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners webinar ahead of MACRUC’s June 22-24 virtual meeting. “We all woke up during COVID-19 and we realized there are so many institutions” including communications “that are essential that we have taken for granted,” Phillips said. A state, local and federal plan is needed, said the D.C. PSC chairman: “It has to be a priority on every level.” MACRUC members shared how their agencies adapted to the new normal, including through virtual meetings and electronic filings. Working from home probably will continue at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission after the pandemic, said Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille. The PUC launched a work-from-home pilot for some staff in January; COVID-19 forced the state commission to widely adopt the policy two months later. “I don't know that you can put that genie back in the bottle,” she said. Only 17 of 500 Pennsylvania PUC employees are unable work from home, due to the nature of their jobs, she said. Iowa Utilities Board’s Nick Wagner noted, “We’ve all learned a little about IT.” Protests about racial justice are also affecting state commissions, MACRUC members said. “It has opened a lot of eyes across the country,” said New Jersey Board of Public Utilities member Joe Fiordaliso. Brown Dutrieuille noted the PUC will continue its work to encourage more supplier diversity. Phillips said, "What I've been trying to do mostly is just listen.”

California privacy advocate Alastair Mactaggart laughs at claims he would “sabotage” the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) with the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), he testified at an Assembly Privacy Committee hearing livestreamed Friday. Mactaggart sponsored the CPRA, a ballot initiative expected to appear in November (see 2006040046), and in 2018, he sponsored a ballot initiative that never went to vote because he struck a deal that led to the legislature quickly passing the CCPA. Privacy groups gave the CPRA a lukewarm reception because it includes some exemptions sought by businesses (see 2005080037). “If the criticism is that I talked to Google and Facebook and Experian, well, guilty as charged,” Mactaggart said at the hearing. He also spoke with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and American Civil Liberties Union and other privacy advocates, he said. Mactaggart met with the California Chamber of Commerce and made some requested changes, testified CalChamber Policy Advocate Shoeb Mohammed. The chamber has no formal position on the initiative, but Mohammed warned the initiative could increase compliance costs. CompTIA Senior Director-State Government Affairs Laura Curtis said, “The ballot initiative adds complexity to an already complex law before businesses and consumers even have an opportunity to become familiar with the CCPA.” Consumer Reports likes that the ballot initiative would make it harder for the legislature to weaken the privacy law, said Policy Analyst Maureen Mahoney. The CPRA needs 685,533 verified signatures to qualify for the November ballot; it has 420,744 verified so far of 931,000 submitted, said a slide presented by Mactaggart at the hearing. The real estate developer sued California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D) Monday for failing to immediately notify county officials to start the verification process. “We believe the Secretary of State did not fulfill their ministerial duty to notify counties that they had to submit their random sample results by June 25,” the statutory deadline to qualify measures for November, emailed a spokesperson for Mactaggart’s group, Californians for Consumer Privacy. Padilla notified counties May 14, giving them until June 26, said the complaint at the California Superior Court in Sacramento. Mactaggart sought immediate judicial relief. It “remains to be seen how the Court may interpret the term ‘immediately’ and whether it will agree to (or even has the power to) order the Secretary of State to require county registrars to complete the certification process sooner than statutorily allowed,” McGuireWoods attorneys blogged Wednesday. Padilla didn’t comment now.

U.S. District Court in Houston set an Oct. 14 pretrial conference for scheduling in seven states’ lawsuit against alleged robocall businesses Rising Eagle Capital and JSquared Telecom (case 4:20-cv-02021). Parties should appear Oct. 14 at 9:30 a.m. before Magistrate Judge Andrew Edison, the court said (in Pacer) Wednesday. The FCC proposed a $225 million fine against the companies Tuesday (see 2006090044).

Maine and friends can’t save the state’s ISP privacy law, said industry plaintiffs ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom in a Wednesday reply (in Pacer). “Implicitly acknowledging its frailty, Defendant offers narrowing constructions to correct some of its flaws, simply ignores others, and attempts to backfill the absence of legislative findings with post-hoc rationalizations," the industry groups said in case 1:20-cv-00055. "None of this overcomes the Statute’s insurmountable constitutional and preemption problems.” Public Knowledge and other amici supported Maine's law (see 2006010038).

The California Public Utilities Commission has authority to require 72-hours backup power at wireless facilities, CPUC President Marybel Batjer said in a proposed decision Thursday in docket R.18-03-011. Wireless providers would have 12 months from the decision’s effective date to make it so, she said. The proposal would permit diesel generation, but wireless providers must “explore ways to transition to renewable generation for backup power,” it said. The wireless industry resisted a backup power mandate, with some disputing California wireless authority (see 2004060061). The CPUC “has long held that wireless service providers are public utilities,” argued the agency about its wireless jurisdiction. “As the wireless market developed, the Commission and the Courts continued to find and uphold Commission jurisdiction over wireless telecommunications utilities to protect consumers. The Commission’s jurisdiction extends to the facilities wireless carriers rely upon to provision service.” The federal government can't preempt the state's police power over public health and safety, and there can't be a conflict preemption argument without FCC backup power rules, it said. The CPUC may vote on the item as soon as its July 16 meeting, said Chief Administrative Law Judge Anne Simon in a cover page to the proposal. CTIA and the Wireless Infrastructure Association didn’t comment.

Michigan Public Service Commissioners unanimously agreed to close an investigation on whether customers could find alternatives to Talk America Services after the telco discontinued serving the state. The PSC opened the probe in December after some customers complained. All complaints are resolved and all customers moved to alternative providers, said Wednesday's order in docket U-20623. It’s the first time the commission tapped authority under the Michigan Telecommunications Act as updated in 2014, the PSC said. The agency on Tuesday unveiled a map of free Wi-Fi hot spots to help residents without internet during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Pennsylvania bill to curb call-spoofing will go to the floor, after a unanimous vote Tuesday by the Senate Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee. SB-764 follows up on an anti-robocalls measure the state enacted last year (see 1910070005). At the livestreamed hearing, senators adopted without opposition an amendment by Chair Robert Tomlinson (R). It makes “technical corrections” suggested by industry and the attorney general’s office, and limits telemarketing hours to 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Tomlinson said.