The New York Public Service Commission granted a Dish Wireless petition for eligible telecom carrier designation. Thursday's unanimous action clears Dish to receive federal USF and wireless Lifeline service throughout the state. Commissioners also received a report on Verizon service quality in Q3 2022. Verizon satisfied timeliness-of-repair and repair call center answer time metrics in all three months, said a summary. But Verizon missed a companywide customer trouble report rate metric and the PSC’s guideline for complaint rate in all three months, it said.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday more changes to FCC rules are possible, after Hurricanes Fiona and Ian, speaking at the start of a “field hearing” on some lessons learned from those storms. Rosenworcel noted the FCC held a similar hearing after Ida last year (see 2110260067) and later made the wireless industry’s voluntary resiliency cooperative framework mandatory and expanded roaming requirements. The framework was a hot topic at that hearing. The big topic at the Thursday hearing was improving coordination between power companies and communications providers.

The electoral battle for control of Congress remained unresolved Thursday, but former FCC officials agree with other communications sector observers (see 2210310073) that Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is likely to face less critical oversight if the GOP wins either chamber than would otherwise be expected because the current 2-2 split commission has spawned relatively little controversy. NTIA could face more of the heat, experts told us. Tech policy stakeholders, meanwhile, expect a shift in the direction on Big Tech-focused legislation under GOP majorities.

Communications sector officials and lobbyists believe the outcome of the Tuesday midterm election could affect a range of telecom policy priorities, including whether the Senate confirms FCC nominee Gigi Sohn this year, or any other commission Democrats, during the remainder of President Joe Biden’s term. Election results may affect future federal broadband funding initiatives and the direction of a proposed spectrum pipeline in the years ahead, observers told us. Election prognosticators see only a handful of incumbents on the Senate and House Commerce and Judiciary committees facing tight reelection battles despite volatile polling results in recent weeks.

The USF contribution factor will increase from 28.9% during Q4 2022 to 33.2% during Q1 2023, emailed analyst Billy Jack Gregg Thursday (see 2209010064). The projected overall demand will likely be $2.13 billion, Gregg said, citing for the increase "large increases in demand" for the E-rate, rural healthcare and High Cost Fund programs.

Whether Oklahoma should cap its state USF surcharge divided Corporation Commission members at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday. Commissioners weighed a draft bill, distributed last week, to update Oklahoma USF (OUSF) policy in the 1997 Oklahoma Telecommunications Act. A commission rulemaking might be a better option than legislation to strengthen OUSF accountability, said Commissioner Todd Hiett (R).

FCC commissioners approved 4-0 Thursday, as expected (see 2210240047), an order launching a notice of inquiry on the 12.7 GHz band. The agency also cleared a plan to extend USF support to eligible mobile and fixed carriers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and an NPRM addressing Stir/Shaken caller ID authentication standards. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel acknowledged she had circulated an item focused on the 4.9 GHz band (see 2210260064).

The Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) rejected state USF changes proposed by industry. Many of the state’s local exchange carriers worked on and supported the proposal to shift Alaska USF (AUSF) to connections-based contribution (see 2210110036). At a virtual meeting Wednesday, commissioners took separate 4-0 votes to oppose the plan and instead open a 30-day comment period on a staff proposal to extend AUSF’s sunset date by two years to June 30, 2025 (docket R-21-001). Commissioner Robert Pickett concluded that if the RCA adopted rules based on the industry proposal, they would be dead nearly on arrival at the Alaska Department of Law. Pickett said the RCA requested and received DOL’s legal analysis on the industry proposal. Commissioners voted 4-0 to waive attorney-client privilege and release the DOL memo. “This is absolutely going to require a legislative fix,” said Pickett, but if this isn't fixed this upcoming session, “it's not going to get fixed.” Chair Keith Kurber said he supported extending the current fund to give the legislature time. Saying expanding AUSF into broadband is “problematic,” Commissioner Jan Wilson supported continuing AUSF up to three years to support telephone service. DOL’s legal analysis flagged two big problems with the industry proposal. A 2019 deregulation law known as SB-83 removed “significant statutory authority from virtually every section proposed to be revised,” it said. “Second, there are two situations where apparently similarly situated telecommunications utilities are treated differently based on distinctions that are not supported by statute, although they may have been prior to enactment of SB 83. This creates a probable equal protection problem.”

California will shift to a connections-based state USF contribution method and adopt one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) rules for pole attachments, utility commissioners decided at a livestreamed meeting Thursday. Also, the California Public Utilities Commission denied -- at least for now -- eligible telecom carrier designation for Starlink, needed for federal Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support.

California utilities would get three months to implement one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) under a revised proposed decision (PD) by the California Public Utilities Commission (docket R.17-06-028). CPUC members plan to vote Thursday on adopting OTMR for pole attachments (see 2210070061). Tuesday’s revised PD would adopt the cable industry’s suggestion to give three months for implementation rather than electric utilities’ proposal to give one year. With so much state and federal broadband funding available, the CPUC “is more inclined to order that compliance with the new OTMR requirements occur sooner rather than later so that broadband services are made more readily available in California’s neediest regions,” it said. The CPUC would disagree with its Safety and Enforcement Division that there isn't data to support a proposed finding that OTMR will promote utility safety. “The FCC adopted its access timeframes in 2011 and OTMR rules in 2018 after an extended process with the Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee that addressed safety,” said the revised PD. “The OTMR requirements adopted by the Commission are consistent with the FCC rules which have not been shown to have compromised safety.” No California pilot is necessary, it said. The CPUC won’t increase penalties for unauthorized pole attachments yet, the revised PD said. Pacific Gas and Electric sought to increase the $500 fee to $2,500; Southern California Edison wanted to increase it to $2,000. The CPUC isn't ready “to decide if the increased penalty amounts would provide the necessary deterrent effect, that the increased penalty amount would not place too onerous a burden on the attachers who would be penalized, or that there isn’t an alternative mechanism that would be more effective,” said the revised draft: The CPUC “will consider this issue later in this proceeding or in a subsequent proceeding to further develop the record.” Carriers must assess state USF surcharges through a new connections-based method starting April 1, said a Wednesday revised draft of another CPUC proposal up for vote Thursday (see 2210050038). The initial PD in docket R.21-03-002 proposed shifting methods Jan. 1, but industry raised concerns last month (see 2209230031). Among other edits, the CPUC deleted a line saying the commission “is limited in its ability to expand the billing base to include broadband.” It clarified that private branch exchanges and Centrex lines are “access lines” to be counted for contribution purposes. The CPUC would disagree with AT&T that the state public utility code’s Section 285 prevents it from applying the new contribution method to VoIP carriers.