Adam Bender

The Texas Public Utility Commission violated the state’s constitution and utility and administrative procedure laws when it chose not to fully fund Texas USF (TUSF), a state appeals court ruled Thursday. The 3rd District Texas Court of Appeals in Austin partly reversed the Travis County District Court in Austin dismissal of rural telcos’ complaint against the PUC. The trial court must issue a writ of mandamus ordering Texas commissioners “to take immediate action to fulfill their duties imposed by law to fully fund all TUSF programs and to make all disbursements required by” the Texas Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA) and the PUC’s “existing TUSF orders and commitments,” wrote Justice Gisela Triana in Thursday’s opinion with Chief Justice Darlene Byrne and Justice Chari Kelly (case 03-21-00294-CV).

The California Public Utilities Commission stood by a 7-cent cap on intrastate per-minute rates for incarcerated person calling services (IPCS) in state court Wednesday. The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), also named in a May lawsuit by Securus, said the CPUC’s interim order was “well-reasoned and provides desperately needed relief” to IPCS users. Meanwhile, a California bill to make IPCS calls free and require a CPUC service-quality rulemaking cleared another Assembly committee despite continuing opposition from sheriffs.

Lumen received its final state approval for its sale of ILEC assets to Apollo in 20 states. Only FCC approval remains. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities voted 5-0 Wednesday to clear the $7.6 billion deal with fiber buildout, copper maintenance and other conditions. "We're making the lives of thousands of people better by providing them with the opportunity to utilize high-speed internet service," said New Jersey Board President Joseph Fiordaliso at the livestreamed meeting.

The Arizona Corporation Commission directed staff to create a memo and proposed remedy order on Frontier Communications’ June 11 outage. At the West Virginia Public Service Commission, Frontier agreed to a settlement with 911 officials over outages in that state. Arizona commissioners grilled the company at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday about its response to the gunshot-caused outage, and earlier problems (see 2206280065). After discussing legal options in closed executive session, including a possible order to show cause (OSC), commissioners decided they will vote at their July 12-13 meeting on a proposed remedy order. Chairwoman Lea Marquez Peterson (R) said it would require Frontier to (1) quickly interconnect with the state's Comtech 911 system, (2) provide an emergency response plan, (3) actively pursue state and federal funds for network redundancy and diversity, (4) give a biweekly status update on Frontier’s progress getting funds, (5) identify areas that lack redundancy and diversity and provide a hierarchy of priorities for vulnerable areas and (6) have high-level, senior executives attend emergency town hall meetings in St. Johns, which experienced the June 11 problems. ACC Utilities Director Elijah Abinah said staff is considering July 14 for a St. Johns town hall. Peterson added, “We would like this to include enforcement provisions.” Saint Johns Police Chief Lance Spivey and Assistant Fire Chief Jason Kirk said they would have preferred the commission consider stronger enforcement action in the form of an OSC. The West Virginia PSC posted a Frontier 911 pact Tuesday in four dockets including 22-0274-T-C. Frontier agreed to “review and update its change management policy to assure regular, preventative maintenance routines,” improve network card tracking and inventory management, standardize a process for individualized route diversity education for county 911 officials, give PSC staff the West Virginia part of its FCC 911 reliability certification report and give county 911 directors documents on using Frontier’s rerouting tool, upon request. Before it can take effect, West Virginia commissioners “would have to approve, reject or modify the settlement,” a PSC spokesperson emailed Wednesday.

Arizona Corporation Commission members raised questions Tuesday about Frontier Communications’ urgency in responding to a June 11 fiber cut and other network outages. Frontier officials at the livestreamed ACC meeting defended the company’s speed responding to the June 11 outage, which the company blamed on gunshots by a possible saboteur (see 2206270029). Commissioners and local officials want more network redundancy to prevent future problems.

The California Public Utilities Commission received much feedback from telecom companies, consumer advocates and local governments on possible changes to California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband infrastructure account rules. The CPUC received comments Monday on changes proposed June 7 to the state-funded last-mile program as part of a wider California broadband effort (see 2205250045). The CPUC adopted rules in April for a last-mile program using federal funding (see 2204210046).

The California Public Utilities Commission is meeting with ISPs that didn’t provide all broadband data requested for a state map (see 2206170059 and 2206160065), a CPUC spokesperson emailed Monday. “We are meeting with the non-compliant providers with a goal of addressing their concerns so the data collection can be completed.” Cox, Comcast, Charter, Verizon and AT&T in separate June 17 responses to the CPUC’s June 10 noncompliance letters offered to meet with the agency. “The addresses of our customers and services they purchase cannot be made publicly available without causing serious harm,” said AT&T. “Customers also expect their information about the services they purchase will not be made publicly available.” Comcast worries that giving address-level data would violate customers’ “privacy rights in contravention of state and federal law,” it said. Others raised similar privacy concerns.

California Assemblymember Jim Wood (D) is troubled by big ISPs not providing all broadband deployment data sought by the California Public Utilities Commission, he said at a partially virtual California Middle Mile Committee hearing Friday. Seeking address-level data for a state map required for California’s $6 billion broadband effort, the CPUC is considering actions against eight ISPs including AT&T, Verizon and top cable companies, which raised privacy and confidentiality concerns with providing certain information (see 2206160065). “It is important for us to know that these areas that the carriers are saying are served are truly served,” said Wood, characterizing ISPs’ defense as “privacy, blah, blah, blah.” If the big companies’ insufficient response “imperils this project ... and doesn’t get coverage to people who need it, it's a huge disservice and we need to hang that around their necks because it is not appropriate.” CPUC President Alice Reynolds agreed with Wood. “We do understand confidentiality is a concern but the CPUC is very experienced protecting confidential information,” she said. "This data is very essential for the state” and “really critical to our success here.” The California Technology Department agrees, said Mark Monroe, Broadband Middle-Mile Initiative deputy director. "We definitely need to have that data to make sure we're targeting all of the right areas.” Cable companies “hear you,” California Cable and Telecommunications Association General Counsel Jacqueline Kinney responded during a public comments round. CCTA members will work to provide data “consistent with both state and federal law related to broadband mapping” and state and federal consumer privacy laws, said Kinney, noting this year’s data request was different from what the CPUC previously sought. ISPs significantly overstate their coverage, said Patrick Messac, project manager for OaklandUndivided, a partnership that includes the mayor’s education office. “I do struggle with the argument that the ISPs are concerned with consumer data.”

The California Public Utilities Commission threatened action against several large phone and cable companies that the agency says didn’t fully comply with a March 15 request for granular deployment data needed for a state map required for California’s $6 billion broadband effort. The CPUC seeks responses by Friday to similar warning letters sent June 10. ISPs said privacy and confidentiality concerns stopped them from sharing all data sought by the state commission.

AT&T may give up eligible telecom carrier designation for remaining Ohio areas it didn’t earlier relinquish, the Ohio Public Utilities Commission agreed Wednesday. Commissioners voted 5-0 at a livestreamed meeting to approve the carrier’s Sept. 3 petition in 21-917-TP-UNC (see 2204040037). The PUC “finds that most of AT&T Ohio’s Lifeline customers in the relinquishment area will have one or more ETCs to choose from for their Lifeline service,” said Wednesday’s order. The commission carved out seven Lifeline customers identified by staff as lacking alternatives. Also, PUC members voted 5-0 to approve Time Warner Cable’s Oct. 25 petition to remove from its ETC-designated service area some census blocks where it no longer will receive Rural Digital Opportunity Fund support (docket 21-27-TP-UNC). Commissioners agreed to both items without discussion.