Telecom bills advanced in Ind., N.Y., Utah. and Okla. Utah Gov. ...

privately owned companies. Ind. Gov. Frank O'Bannon (D) signed bill (SB-180) that allows state’s enhanced 911 advisory board to invest 911 fees collected from wireless carriers and use proceeds to reimburse carriers and local 911 boards for expenses incurred in meeting FCC’s Phase 2 requirements for pinpointing location of wireless phone making 911 call. New law also reduces state board’s size to 7 members from 11 and makes state treasurer voting member of board. Ind. legislature passed bill (SB-52) to conform state wireless taxation to federal law by making wireless services taxable at subscriber’s place of primary use, typically home or workplace, regardless of where call occurred. Bill hit snag in House when rider was attached to increase sales tax distributions supporting economic development zones in city of S. Bend but Senate leaders in conference committee succeeded in deleting amendment and returning bill to original form. N.Y. legislature passed bill (SB-6079) to require state agencies to develop formal privacy policies for their Web sites. Bill sent to Gov. George Pataki (R) would require that policies include what personal information was collected, how that information would be retained and how it would be used, how site users could access their own collected information and steps agency took to ensure confidentiality. Okla. Senate passed bill to require Attorney Gen. to establish and enforce state no-call telemarketing list. Measure (SB-950) is similar to bill passed by House (HB-1923). Bills differ in that House bill specifies maximum $1,500 fine for each offense, while Senate bill would authorize AG to set fines above that level for chronic offenders.