Vermont may conclude interconnected VoIP is a telecom service and not information under federal law. Public Service Board Hearing Officer George Young recommended the finding in a proposed decision in docket 7316 we obtained Tuesday. Comments are due Dec. 23 on the proposed decision, which isn’t final and may be modified by the board, Young wrote in a cover letter. The board has been examining whether fixed VoIP is an information or telecom service since 2013, when the Vermont Supreme Court remanded the board’s past VoIP decision, and PSB Member Sarah Hofmann last month hinted a decision was imminent (see 1611150014). The proceeding focuses on how Comcast’s fixed VoIP service meets that definition under federal law. The board previously ruled interconnected VoIP is a telecom service rather than information, arguing federal law doesn't pre-empt state regulation due to the ability to divide interstate and intrastate traffic. The company appealed the regulators’ decision. The court agreed with its appeal, but remanded to the board on the classification question. "Notwithstanding the differences in the manner in which calls are transmitted, from the consumer's perspective, there is no perceived difference between the VoIP service and traditional landline service,” said the proposed decision dated Friday. The customer uses the same phone, plugs into the same outlets and has the same voice communication experience, it said. Comcast markets its VoIP service as a substitute for the switched landline service, it said. The proposed decision cites in part the FCC net neutrality order, including an FCC finding that a provider is a common carrier “by virtue of its functions.” It also cited a 1998 FCC report to Congress in which the commission reached the tentative conclusion that "phone-to-phone" IP telephony is telecom service. And it referred to the Supreme Court Brand X decision saying an entity may not avoid Title II regulation of a telecom service by bundling it with an information service. Despite the precedent, some uncertainty remains, it said: "The FCC still has not definitively classified VoIP services as telecommunications services or information services." The proposed decision didn’t resolve how the board should regulate providers of VoIP services pursuant to state law authority. That question will be answered in a second phase of the investigation, it said. A PSB spokeswoman declined comment. Comcast didn't comment.

New Jersey Board of Public Utilities President Richard Mroz will preside over a probe into Verizon copper service quality, the BPU said Monday. The investigation responds to a complaint by Cumberland County and 16 southern New Jersey municipalities that was supported by the Division of Rate Counsel (see 1609290064). Talks among the parties haven’t led to a settlement, the board said. Mroz will rule on motions, issue a procedural schedule and preside over any hearings, it said.

Verizon will postpone planned disconnections of copper service in Maryland through Feb. 15, the company said. Verizon wants to cooperate with Maryland PSC staff “to complete its network transformation process as transparently and smoothly as possible,” said a Friday letter to the state commission. Last month, the telco opposed an investigation sought by the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, with the company saying it violated no FCC rules when it sent copper retirement notices to Maryland consumers (see 1611230049).

Charter and the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission fired more shots at each other’s motions for summary judgment before Jan. 9 oral argument in federal court on whether the PUC may regulate the cable operator's VoIP service as a telecom service (see 1611250026). Charter’s complaint alleged the PUC overstepped its authority by imposing on VoIP services state regulations for traditional phone services. The case began in March 2013, when the company transferred 100,000 Minnesota customers to an affiliate that provided VoIP phone service that wasn't certified by the PUC. The agency said interconnected VoIP is a telecom service subject to state regulation, but the operator and the Voice on the Net Coalition said it’s an information service subject only to FCC regulation. In a Friday reply (in Pacer), the PUC urged the court to grant its motion and dismiss all of Charter’s claims with prejudice. Charter replied (in Pacer) that the court should grant the company’s motion against the PUC and follow four other federal courts that held interconnected VoIP is an information service.

Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell lost the election for U.S. Senate to Republican John Kennedy, in a run-off Saturday. Kennedy replaces retiring Sen. David Vitter, Republican chairman of the Small Business Committee and member of the Judiciary Committee. Campbell's term on the PSC expires Dec. 31, 2020, and the commissioner hasn't said he will depart sooner, a PSC spokesman said. Meanwhile in Ohio, the Public Utilities Commission nominating council seeks new commissioners to fill vacancies on the five-member body, the state agency said in a Sunday news release. One is for an unexpired term ending April 10, 2020, and the other is for a five-year term that starts April 11. Gov. John Kasich (R) chose Howard Petricoff in June for the first slot, but after the state Senate appeared unlikely to confirm him, Petricoff announced his resignation Dec. 2. Under the Ohio process, applications are due to the nominating council Jan. 12, and the council on Jan. 26 will interview candidates and select four names to submit to Kasich. The Republican governor then has 30 days to appoint names from the list or request more names. The state Senate must confirmed the governor’s appointments.

The Michigan Public Service Commission directed Lifeline eligible telecom carriers to keep using the existing Michigan Lifeline Eligibility Database but to add the Veterans and Survivors Pension Benefit Program as an eligibility criteria for potential Lifeline customers. Commissioners approved the order (Case No. U-18213) at a meeting Friday. Earlier this month, the FCC Wireline Bureau granted Michigan a waiver until Dec. 31, 2017, to align its Lifeline eligibility criteria and database with the updated federal commission rules (see 1612070043 and 1612010070). The order clarifies “the rules of the road” for Michigan providers after the FCC waiver, signaling it’s “really status quo going forward” until 2018, Michigan PSC Chairman Sally Talberg said in an interview Friday. Adding the veterans benefit program -- a requirement the FCC declined to waive -- should be “manageable,” she said. Talberg was “very pleased” by the FCC waiver order, she said. “We’ll need to be working diligently over the course of next year to make sure everything’s in place, including looking at the laws in our state and how they sync up with the new federal criteria,” she said. “But I think we’ll be in good shape to address all the issues during that time frame.” To reflect the changes, the PSC updated its online Lifeline eligibility database, is now revising its Lifeline consumer tips sheet, and plans to highlight changes in a news release and upcoming outreach events, a commission spokeswoman added.

The Dec. 1 telecom competition decision in California shouldn’t moot ISPs’ lawsuit against the state commission related to Form 477 data disclosure, plaintiffs argued. The California Public Utilities Commission voted to close the proceeding at issue in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco case, while ordering staff to probe telecom market competition (see 1612010061). AT&T, Comcast, CTIA, Verizon and other industry plaintiffs challenged a May 3 ruling in that proceeding compelling ISPs to disclose subscriber data to The Utility Reform Network (TURN) or other third parties. On Nov. 23, District Judge Vince Chhabria asked parties to show why the case shouldn’t be dismissed as moot given the CPUC’s plan to close the proceeding. Thursday, the ISPs responded (in Pacer) that the court could still provide relief to the companies. The Dec. 1 CPUC decision -- posted Friday in docket 15-11-007 -- required parties to continue submitting Form 477 and other confidential data, leaving open the confidentiality questions, the ISPs said. "The CPUC agrees that the May 3, 2016 Order is now moot, but has refused to agree that Plaintiffs will receive advance notice before public disclosure of their Form 477 data,” the ISPs said. “Therefore, this case is not moot. However, if this Court were to enter an order requiring reasonable advance notice and an opportunity to object (and, if necessary, to seek judicial review) before public disclosure of those data, the Court could then dismiss this case as moot.” The agency and TURN are to file responses by Dec. 15 under the judge’s order.

CTA hailed Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) for signing into law Friday a legislative package (SB-995) that will allow full testing of autonomous vehicles in the state. "Self-driving and connected cars have the potential to reduce more than 90 percent of accidents caused by human error, provide previously unimagined independence to seniors and the visually impaired, eliminate hours wasted in traffic and minimize congestion,” CTA President Gary Shapiro said in a Friday statement. “To truly harness these benefits, we need more states to embrace Michigan's model to allow for efficient and safe testing of self-driving vehicles.” The Michigan legislature approved SB-995 and sent it to Snyder for his signature in November.

Vermont Department of Public Service staff supported doubling time allowed to FairPoint Communications for addressing service issues, if the company compensates customers for more than money lost during the outage. DPS staff responded Thursday to a FairPoint petition for the Vermont Public Service Board to relax reporting rules (see 1608080030). The current metric requires the telco to make repairs in 24 hours, a goal the carrier said it has difficulty meeting. FairPoint opposes compensating customers at more than a pro-rata rate, but DPS Consumer Affairs Director Carol Flint testified that “increasing the bill credit above a simple proration is meant to provide meaningful compensation to FairPoint’s captive consumers who experience lengthy outages.” DPS Telecommunications and Connectivity Director James Porter agreed in separate testimony. "While FairPoint correctly states that competitors have not entered the market in the most rural and hard to serve areas, that is not the fault of the customer who lives there,” he said. “FairPoint does retain a monopoly -- albeit not of FairPoint’s choosing -- over its captive customers and accordingly the Department views the enhanced bill credits for those captive customers as a necessary component of FairPoint’s request to change to a ‘Cleared in 48’ metric.” The phone company Monday said it agreed to a $1.5 billion acquisition by Consolidated Communications (see 1612060041).

A North Carolina lawmaker who pledged to change the state law banning municipal broadband expansion held her seat in the state House after a recount in a close election. Rep. Susan Martin (R) represents Wilson County, where the North Carolina law banned Wilson Greenlight from expanding its municipal fiber broadband service into Pinetops. Martin and state Sen. Harry Brown (R), co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Economic Development and Global Engagement Oversight Committee, said they would sponsor community broadband legislation in 2017 (see 1611040037). Martin prevailed days after Republican governor and municipal broadband critic Pat McCrory conceded a contested gubernatorial race to Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper (see 1612050053). The FCC lost a challenge to the North Carolina law earlier this year in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.