Global InterXchange’s (GIX) dark fiber route across the Hudson River is operational, the company announced Tuesday. It said the link is the first privately owned wired line between New York and New Jersey in more than 20 years. It connects telecommunications hubs at 60 Hudson St. in Manhattan and 165 Halsey St., Newark. The route was created in collaboration with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and “sets a new standard for connectivity across the Hudson River,” said GIX President Joe Falco.

Restrictions on cellphones in Virginia public schools are "essential ... to promote a healthier and more focused educational environment," Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said Tuesday in an executive order. It directs the state's secretaries of state and health and human resources, health commissioner, superintendent of public instruction and Department of Education to solicit public input for draft guidance on cellphone-free K-12 public schools. The state agencies also will issue model implementation plans giving school divisions options, such as pouches or dedicated cellphone lockers. Final state guidance on restricting or eliminating cellphone use during instructional time is due by Sept. 16, with school divisions adopting policies and procedures by Jan. 1, according to the EO.

Missouri's bill exempting streaming services from paying separate local use fees on top of those already levied on video service providers (HB-2057) was signed into law Tuesday, said Gov. Mike Parson (R). DirecTV, which has lobbied against such fees at statehouses, said Missouri was the 14th state adopting such legislation.

Indiana received NTIA approval for volume two of its initial proposal for the broadband equity, access and deployment program, the federal agency said Monday. Now the state can request access to its $868 million BEAD allocation. NTIA has approved entire initial plans for 14 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Meanwhile, Maryland announced its BEAD challenge process. The window for contesting broadband maps will be July 16 through Aug. 15, the Department of Housing and Community Development said Monday.

The California Privacy Protection Agency sought feedback on proposed data broker registration rules, the CPPA said Friday. Comments are due Aug. 20. The CPPA will also hold a virtual hearing that day at 1 p.m. PDT. California’s 2023 Delete Act authorized the agency to make registration rules. “The proposed regulations address common questions and obstacles that surfaced for data brokers in the initial registration period,” including about registration fees, statutory definitions and requirements for registration, registry updates and website disclosures, the CPPA said.

Mississippi will appeal a preliminary injunction of an age-verification law to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, state Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R) said in a Wednesday notice at the U.S. District Court for Southern Mississippi. In addition, the state sought a stay pending appeal. The court put enforcement of the law on hold Monday (see 2407010062). Under the law, parental consent is needed for minors younger than 18 who access social media. The court said NetChoice showed a high likelihood of success in its complaint that raised constitutional concerns with the law. "On appeal, the Attorney General will show that this Court’s injunction cannot be squared with the Act’s targeted scope, with its focus on (and regulation of) non-expressive conduct of covered online platforms, or with precedent on facial challenges," the state said in an accompanying memo. "The Attorney General will also show that the harm to the State from enjoining the Act’s enforcement substantially outweighs any harm to NetChoice and its members from complying with the Act."

A U.S. district court judge dismissed businesses’ challenge to Maryland’s digital ad tax law Wednesday. U.S. District Court of Maryland Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby granted the state’s motion to dismiss and denied the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s motion for summary judgment on the remaining count in the complaint. In January, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals returned the case to the district court as it disagreed that a decision on the constitutionality of a related pass-through ban was moot (see 2401100060). The Maryland law’s pass-through prohibition “restricts protected speech, to the extent that this statute requires that a covered taxpayer not directly pass on the cost of the tax imposed” by the Digital Advertising Gross Revenues Tax Act, through a separate fee, surcharge or line item, Griggsby wrote. “But Plaintiffs have not met their burden to show that a substantial number of the Pass-Through Prohibition’s applications are unconstitutional, when judged in relation to the statute’s plainly legitimate sweep, to prevail on their First Amendment claim.”

A California bill on digital discrimination will advance to the Senate Appropriations Committee after clearing two policy committees Tuesday. Sponsor Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D) vigorously defended the bill including a disparate impact standard at the Communications Committee hearing that day (see 2407020062). AB-2239 would ban digital discrimination as the FCC defines it. “This is a win for disconnected Californians,” Bonta said in an emailed news release Wednesday. “Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately disconnected.” The California legislature returns from summer recess Aug. 5.

State commissioners proposed no telecom resolutions for NARUC’s July 14-17 summit in West Palm Beach, Florida, NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay said Tuesday.

California video franchising is working fine as is, the California Video & Broadband Association (CalBroadband) said Monday. The state cable group urged the California Public Utilities Commission to “continue with the existing approach and adhere closely to the legislative mandates set forth in” a 2021 law that increased CPUC authority under the state’s Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act (DIVCA) to check if state video franchisees are deploying enough broadband. “Since the passage of DIVCA, an industry landscape of primarily locally franchised traditional cable providers has been replaced with a highly competitive, diversified environment that now includes a plethora of non-traditional video service providers,” CalBroadband said.