A pair of net neutrality bills resurfaced in New Jersey after stalling in the Senate last year. Rep. Nicholas Chiaravalloti (D) introduced AB-4217 Monday to direct the Board of Public Utilities to stop ISPs that don’t follow open internet principles from installing infrastructure on poles or underground, and AB-4219 to prohibit public contracts with ISPs that violate net neutrality. The Assembly passed the 2019 versions of the bills last year.
The California Public Utilities Commission plans to propose specific support amounts and minimum service standards for state LifeLine next month, said CPUC Administrative Law Judge Stephanie Wang in a Monday ruling regarding docket R.20-02-008. The ALJ asked service providers and others to respond by June 22 to questions about participants' voice and data usage and other issues. California commissioners last month agreed to suspending the state LifeLine renewal process due to the pandemic (see 2005280058). In another email ruling Monday, the same ALJ extended through June 30 the temporary suspension of renewals and suspended de-enrollments for non-usage and the three-month documentation rule for demonstrating income-based qualification.
Agriculture groups and the New York State Wireless Association supported revised wireless infrastructure rules set for an FCC commissioners' vote Tuesday. Both filed in docket 19-250 letters posted Friday (see here and here). Among those signing the agriculture letter were the Rural & Agriculture Council of America, the American Dairy Coalition, the Intertribal Agriculture Council, National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, the National Farmers Union and the U.S. Cattlemen's Association. “Whether it be its use in facilitating online video sales for livestock, staying up to date with local news and weather, or having access to new and emerging technologies, now more than ever broadband access is needed by our members,” the agriculture groups said. On Thursday, Commissioner Brendan Carr released a promised list of supporters with comments (see 2006030057).
The National Association of Attorneys General is committed to fighting illegal robocalls "by pursuing the scammers" perpetuating them and companies that facilitate such traffic, it said in comments Thursday for docket 20-22. The FCC filing was signed by 52 attorneys general representing each state, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
A California Assembly panel cleared a bill to authorize small independent telcos to request rate cases at the California Public Utilities Commission through advice letters, a process that would be faster than a formal rate case (see 2005050063). The Appropriations Committee voted 17-0 Wednesday for AB-2189. The panel held three other bills scheduled that day on facial recognition (AB-2261), state LifeLine (AB-3079) and bike-share trip location data privacy (AB-3116).
COVID-19 and data security/privacy have something in common when it comes to federalism and states' rights, said Colorado's attorney general. AG Phil Weiser (D) equated the federal response to the pandemic and to privacy issues as a second-best scenario, where states are taking the lead. "In an ideal world, we’d have a first-rate national response to the pandemic where testing capability was developed by the federal government and the states were working collaboratively following the lead of the feds. That’s not the world we’re in right now," he said on a Technology Policy Institute podcast emailed to stakeholders Thursday and taped a week earlier. "We’re in the theory of the second best where the states have effectively been on their own and have been able to, in many cases, including Colorado, reasonably rise to this challenge. That’s actually the case with, right now, data privacy and data security." With no federal privacy law, Weiser described a "vacuum. And so states are now doing their own data privacy." On antitrust generally, the official said enforcement has been too lax. "We have seen concentration in almost every industry such that our economy is more concentrated now than it’s probably ever been," Weiser said. The attorney general hasn't "taken a position on a federal bill" in terms of what specifics he seeks, his spokesperson emailed us. "He does think federal action is needed." As of Sept. 1, 2018, Colorado law required "covered persons and entities to take reasonable steps to protect" personal identifying information. And data security breaches require "detailed notice to consumers and, in certain circumstances, notice to the Attorney General," says the AG's office.
California privacy regulations are "capricious, unfair, and unnecessary," said Software & Information Industry Association President Jeff Joseph Wednesday. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) submitted final rules Monday, barely beating a deadline for implementing CCPA to the Office of Administrative Law for OK less than a month before July 1 enforcement (see 2006020062). The rules force “businesses to either comply with an unconstitutional regulatory requirement or risk expensive enforcement actions to vindicate their constitutional rights,” Joseph said. “Blanket regulation of non-governmentally sourced publicly available information unconstitutionally interferes with protected speech.” Becerra’s office didn’t comment.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) will soon decide whether to sign broadband and telehealth bills cleared recently by the legislature, a spokesperson emailed Monday. The House voted 95-0 Sunday to concur with the Senate-amended HB-530 to require health insurance coverage of telehealth services (see 2005280039). The same day, no House members voted against concurring with Senate amendments to two broadband resolutions that don’t need gubernatorial OK. HCR-77 and HCR-78 ask a state commission to detect public and private barriers to broadband expansion and make broadband maps. Louisiana electric cooperatives might seek veto of SB-406 at the governor’s desk that would set rules for co-op broadband buildouts (see 2005290039)
Maine’s ISP privacy law doesn’t raise First Amendment concerns or run afoul of federal law, Public Knowledge said Monday in an amicus brief (in Pacer) supporting the state at the U.S. District Court of Maine. Consumer privacy advocates supported Maine last week (see 2005280062). The law contested by cable and telecom associations “is part of a longstanding and continuing tradition of complementary state and federal laws that prohibit communications networks, whether paper or electronic, from disclosing any information relating to the acts of communication,” PK wrote. Access Now and New America’s Open Technology Institute filed jointly to support Maine. “ISPs sit in a privileged position,” they said (in Pacer). “Customers cannot reasonably avoid sharing details of their private lives with ISPs.” The Maine law shouldn’t face heightened First Amendment scrutiny because it doesn’t regulate speech and isn’t meant to suppress a particular viewpoint, Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute wrote (in Pacer).
The FCC should clarify that Sprint retains Boost Mobile pilot programs in California as part of the new T-Mobile, the California Public Utilities Commission said in a May 15 letter to the FCC received by mail Tuesday and posted Friday. “If these customers are divested to DISH, the continued operation of the Boost Pilot Programs would be very much in question,” wrote CPUC President Marybel Batjer. The satellite company isn’t required to operate them and might not take on T-Mobile commitments including to provide inexpensive service to foster kids, she said.