Pole attachment stakeholders disagreed on next steps after the California Public Utilities Commission’s October one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) decision in docket I.17-06-027 (see 2210200073). In comments received Tuesday, pole owners resisted attachers urging the CPUC to speed the pole replacement process. Telecom companies rejected more OTMR safety requirements proposed by workers and increased fees for unauthorized attachments sought by two electric companies. San Francisco sought municipal access to private poles.
Adam Bender
Adam Bender, Senior Editor, is the state and local telecommunications reporter for Communications Daily, where he also has covered Congress and the Federal Communications Commission. He has won awards for his Warren Communications News reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists, Specialized Information Publishers Association and the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. Bender studied print journalism at American University and is the author of dystopian science-fiction novels. You can follow Bender at WatchAdam.blog and @WatchAdam on Twitter.
TRENTON -- New Jersey justices challenged Altice on its claim that a state requirement to prorate cable bills is impermissible rate regulation preempted by the Cable Act. The state Supreme Court heard oral argument Tuesday on the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and Division of Rate Counsel's appeal of a lower court’s ruling for Altice. Justices noted the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Maine’s similar rule applying to customers who end service before the month is up.
Despite numerous requests from states and other entities, NTIA declined to extend the timeline for challenging the FCC's new broadband map. The agency set Friday as the target for eligible entities to submit challenges for the next iteration of the map that will be used for broadband, equity, access, and deployment (BEAD) program funding allocations (see 2211100072). Unannounced updates to map data, including recently, complicated states’ challenge preparations, Vermont Community Broadband Board (VCCB) officials told us.
Procedural concerns could complicate a case at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a New York law requiring affordable broadband. At oral argument Thursday in Manhattan, Judge Richard Sullivan grilled parties on a procedural maneuver they used to move the case to the 2nd Circuit from the trial court. Sullivan asked New York’s attorney tough questions on the state’s argument that its law isn’t preempted.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission voted 4-0 at a virtual meeting Tuesday to set a 2023 schedule and release application materials for Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF) support under the Nebraska Broadband Bridge Program (NBBP). The PSC opened docket CPF-1 to administer $80 million in grants last month (see 2212130067). The Nebraska commission “finds that the application materials and program guide previously developed for the NBBP should be utilized to the maximum extent in the CPF grant cycles,” said Tuesday’s order. “However, because the CPF grant program contains additional goals and objectives which must be met in accordance with federal funding guidelines, certain adjustments to the application requirements and program guidance have been made.” Also, the PSC tweaked the application template and program guide due to issues seen in the last NBBP cycle, it said. The PSC will accept applications from Feb. 9-24. The PSC in the next week should schedule a workshop, due to the application materials’ complexity, suggested Commissioner Tim Schram (R) at the meeting. Chair Dan Watermeier (R) said in a news release that already having the NBBP helped the PSC "move quickly in setting up the CPF grant application process” and "prior NBBP applicants should find the CPF application process similar." The PSC is down one member because Commissioner Crystal Rhoades (D) won an election in November to become Douglas County clerk of the District Court. Gov. Jim Pillen (R) must appoint someone to fill the remainder of Rhoades’ term, which ends Jan. 7, 2027.
Local governments opposed a New York state wireless siting bill that’s returning to the legislature after failing in previous sessions. Crown Castle supported the bill that’s meant to streamline 5G deployment by preempting local authority in the right of way. However, a New York wireless industry lawyer raised doubts that the measure has any better chance of passing in 2023 than it did in several previous years.
Mississippi’s broadband office is “extremely busy” putting a challenge together in time for the Jan. 13 deadline to correct the FCC’s national broadband map, said Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi Director Sally Doty on a Broadband.Money webinar Friday. Another month would help, said Doty, saying the winter holidays made the current compressed time frame even more difficult and noting Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., wrote a letter seeking more time. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said last month that NTIA was evaluating states’ concerns with the map challenge deadline (see 2212200060).
Lumen’s CenturyLink won't avoid public hearings in a Minnesota service quality probe. At a partially virtual meeting Thursday, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission voted 5-0 to refer the matter to an administrative law judge for a contested case proceeding on whether the telco is meeting requirements of Minnesota Statutes Chapter 237 and Minnesota Rules Chapter 7810. Lumen Assistant General Counsel Jason Topp said he didn’t think hearings were needed in the more than 2-year-old proceeding. “It's time to bring this to a head, move forward and develop a record.”
A state appeals court upheld a 2021 California Public Utilities Commission decision to adopt imputation of net positive retail broadband internet access service revenue of 10 small LECs and their ISP affiliates when calculating California High Cost Fund A (CHCF-A) support. The CPUC adopted the order April 15, 2021, and denied the LECs’ rehearing request Aug. 19 that year. The telcos sought court review of the two decisions in September 2021. In a Dec. 20 unpublished opinion, the 5th District California Court of Appeals rejected the 10 RLECs’ argument that broadband imputation isn't authorized by state law, exceeds the CPUC's authority, is preempted by federal law and is an unconstitutional taking. On the federal preemption issue, the CPUC is right that broadband imputation doesn't directly "impose economic or public utility type regulation on the ISP affiliates,” Justice Donald Franson wrote (case F083339). “It does not directly impose any requirement on their rates and practices, prohibit discrimination, impose tariffing requirements, impose accounting requirements, restrict entry or exist from the ISP business, impose interconnection obligation, or require unbundling or network access.” The CPUC "correctly found that broadband imputation does not impose price controls on ISP affiliates and does not impose any additional regulations affecting their operations." The court disagrees with telcos' argument that broadband imputation's indirect effects result in economic or utility-style regulation of ISPs, Franson added. On the constitutional claim, Franson wrote, “A subsidy is not private property and, therefore, the reduction of the subsidy does not constitute the taking of private property of the telephone companies or the ISP affiliates.” Justices Bert Levy and Kathleen Meehan concurred.
Revised Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) draft rules make some proposed requirements easier and others harder for data controllers, business privacy attorneys wrote last week. The Colorado attorney general’s office is seeking comments by Jan. 18 on revised draft rules released Wednesday. “Some changes will be heralded by privacy advocates, while others will make implementation easier for businesses,” said McDermott Will attorneys.