ViaSat and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association voiced concerns to FCC officials about New York's state broadband plans, which are connected to a waiver bid at the commission. New York filed for an emergency waiver to tap federal Connect America Fund Phase II subsidy support -- currently slated for an FCC reverse auction -- for its own state broadband reverse auction (see 1610130047). Highlighting a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairman Wheeler and Wireline Bureau officials, a ViaSat and WISPA filing in docket 10-90 said they appreciated New York's broadband commitment, but the state's program "effectively grants a right-of-first-refusal to certain relatively costly technologies, without allowing other technologies that would be more cost-effective to deploy to compete for funds." They said New York's program relegates some technologies to "second tier status, while apparently excluding other technologies altogether -- without regard to the performance capabilities or cost-effectiveness associated with those technologies." A further FCC rulemaking would be a better forum to consider related issues, they said.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted to consult with the city attorney Dec. 13​ in closed session on a proposed ordinance prohibiting landlords of multi-dwelling units from interfering with tenants’ choice of communications service providers. The board voted 9-1 Tuesday in favor of the motion for closed session on item 161110, said meeting minutes posted Wednesday evening. The Electronic Frontier Foundation supported the proposed ordinance in a Sunday blog post. “San Francisco is one of the few places in the United States with significant broadband competition, but many renters are barred from taking advantage of alternatives to large Internet service providers like Comcast and AT&T,” EFF wrote. “Many landlords agree to restrict tenants’ choice of ISP in exchange for kickbacks from the favored provider.”

The Michigan Legislature sent a telehealth bill to the governor after the Senate passed it 36-0 Tuesday. DOJ supported the bill (SB-753), which adds “telehealth” to the Michigan Public Health Code, eases the process by which patients may consent to the treatments, and allows telehealth providers to prescribe drugs (see 1611290026). “Society has never been more connected, yet a patient’s ability to see a medical professional is becoming more and more constrained as hospital wait times grow,” bill sponsor Sen. Pete MacGregor (R) said in a news release. “This bill would help improve access to care, which could lead to healthier patient outcomes.”

Many state 911 programs struggle to verify that carriers remit all such surcharges or that public safety answering points (PSAPs) are using them appropriately, said the National Association of State 911 Administrators (NASNA). States should optimize revenue from existing 911 surcharge receipts before trying to establish a new funding model, NASNA said Wednesday, releasing a paper on challenges and best practices. Many states with 911 programs don’t have broad enough authority to ensure provider accountability, the paper said, with 28 states saying their 911 programs lack authority to ensure every provider collecting the surcharges remits the fee and 25 states saying their programs can’t obtain provider remittance data. Also, 30 state programs lack authority to audit remittances for accuracy, NASNA found. While 12 said other entities have auditing authority, “some indicated that they do not know whether these oversight activities actually occur or not,” NASNA said. “Regardless of who does it, if state statute does not provide for a check and balance, there is simply no way to know whether all providers that are required to remit their 911 fees actually do so. … That lack of basic oversight and enforcement may result in under-collection of funds.” Not all state 911 programs have authority to oversee use of 911 fees, NASNA said. In 12 states, the 911 program lacks authority to obtain PSAP records documenting use of 911 fees, it said. In 15 states, the program lacks authority to audit PSAP records for compliance, it said. In 18 states, the program can’t take enforcement action toward PSAPs where fund misuse is discovered, it said. Some state programs that have authority to oversee and take action against PSAPs lack resources to do it, NASNA said. The FCC estimated diversion led to $223.4 million of 911 fee revenue going to other purposes in 2014, and our May report found the three states said to do the most diversion seemed unlikely to quit the practice soon (see 1605310046).

Small LECs and a rural California country hit by outages supported a draft order on rural call completion issues under consideration by the California Public Utilities Commission. Cable companies urged the CPUC to do nothing and close the proceeding. Commissioner Catherine Sandoval wrote the proposed decision (PD) in docket I1405012, which may be considered at the Dec. 15 commissioners' meeting. In comments Monday, Mendocino County said evidence of service problems presented at a July hearing and seen since by rural customers "justify the PD making even stronger requirements for the Commission to adopt as they show a long-term pattern of service issues that lead to loss of dial-tone and 9-1-1 access." But the current PD is "an important step in the right direction" and a second phase of the proceeding will provide more time to address other issues, the county said. Calaveras Telecom and other rural LECs mostly supported the PD, saying it would address rural call completion issues raised by the small LECs. But they bristled at a proposal requiring carriers of last resort to report within 120 minutes of an outage of 300,000 user minutes that lasts at least 30 minutes -- a plan that Sandoval asked the FCC to consider (see 1612050050). The small RLECs urged the CPUC to reject the requirement, or at least modify time frames. For example, it’s not reasonable to require small carriers serving rural areas to quickly report outages that happen outside business hours, they said. The CPUC should qualify that, in that circumstance, carriers may report the outage 120 minutes after the start of the next business day, the small LECs said. Cox Communications and the California Cable & Telecommunications Association said the agency need not adopt new reporting requirements or keep the proceeding open to address other outage reporting issues. "The PD correctly finds that rural call completions issues have abated and in light of this finding, the PD should be modified to close this proceeding,” the cable companies commented.

North Carolina’s ban on municipal broadband expansion could be at risk after GOP Gov. Pat McCrory conceded the race to the state’s Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper. After seeking a recount in the contentious Nov. 8 election, McCrory announced the concession Monday in a YouTube video. Muni broadband advocates have said Cooper would be more likely than McCrory to change the 2011 state law that was challenged by the FCC but upheld by the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals (see 1611090024). The law bans cities from expanding government-run broadband outside their municipal boundaries. During the gubernatorial race, the small town of Pinetops reached out to Cooper after learning it might lose fiber broadband service due to the court decision (see 1609270035). While changing the law also will require support by the GOP-controlled state legislature, two Republican state legislators in October pledged to sponsor community broadband legislation when the General Assembly reconvenes Jan. 11. McCrory "had very little respect for local autonomy, frequently pushing to overrule it from Raleigh," Institute for Local Self-Reliance Community Broadband Networks Initiative Director Christopher Mitchell emailed Monday. "I think Cooper will be more interested in returning some authority to local governments rather than micro-managing from afar in matters of Internet access." Community broadband advocates will still have to win against big telephone and cable companies that are likely to defend the law, he said.

The FCC should require carriers of last resort to report outages of 300,000 user minutes or more, said California Public Utilities Commissioner Catherine Sandoval. The requirement comes from a CPUC proposed decision written by Sandoval, she said in a Nov. 9 call with FCC Homeland Security Bureau Chief David Simpson, recounted an ex parte posted Friday in FCC docket 15-80. That standard “is a good starting point to identify outage patterns,” she said. “Data analysis will reveal whether outages track rural, urban cluster, or urban population centers, transport facilities, physical network deployments, software design, service issues, or other factors.” Wireless outage reporting on a county basis won’t work for California, Sandoval said. “California has some very large counties,” with San Bernardino twice the size of Maryland, she said. “Outage reporting based on a county, a measurement equivalent to or greater than many U.S. states, would leave many outages unreported.” In an outage, the FCC’s role isn’t to deploy country deputies or “send personnel to announce evacuation using bull horns because the telephone system is down,” but it must ensure outage reporting under the Network Outage Reporting System (NORS), Sandoval said. “Data gaps about communications outages compromise the ability of California’s public safety personnel to respond to emergencies including those where the communications outage is the emergency.” CPUC members may vote Dec. 15 on a rural call completion order (see 1610180038).

Airbnb dropped a lawsuit against New York City and state over a state law that could hold the online property rental company liable for users who place advertisements for short-term rentals. The home-sharing company said it settled a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that invoked Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (see 1611080029). Airbnb sees the settlement “as a material step forward for our hosts,” a company spokesman emailed Monday. “We look forward to using this as a basis to finding an approach that protects responsible New Yorkers while cracking down on illegal hotels that remove permanent housing off the market or create unsafe spaces.” In the agreement, Airbnb and the city agreed to work together on ways to address New York’s housing shortage, including through host compliance with Airbnb's One Host, One Home policy, the spokesman said. The Airbnb policy limits hosts to make their homes available for only short-term rentals. The New York governor and New York City mayor’s offices didn’t comment.

Seeking to expand rural broadband across Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker proposed an extra $35.5 million in grants over three years. The Republican sent a draft bill Thursday to the legislature that would tap a state USF surplus to increase funding to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission’s Broadband Expansion Grant Program and the Department of Administration’s Technology for Educational Achievement (Teach) program, the governor’s office said in a news release. If approved, the appropriations bill would bring total funding for the broadband programs to $52 million over three fiscal years. The bill also bans the Natural Resources and Transportation departments from requiring appraisals or charging fees before granting permits or easements for construction of broadband infrastructure in underserved areas. “The proposed legislation we’re asking the Legislature to act on triples the state’s broadband and technology investments and it will allow Wisconsin communities, especially in rural areas, to compete for jobs, improve education, and provide a higher quality of life,” Walker said. Madison-based LEC TDS Telecom said it will pursue the new broadband funding. “We plan to aggressively pursue more grants, should the legislature enact these important economic development proposals,” said TDS Vice President-External Affairs Drew Petersen. “We expect this to be acted on by the Wisconsin Legislature in early January and fully anticipate a vote by Valentine’s Day.”

Verizon may avoid a Pennsylvania copper probe by settling with the Communications Workers of America. CWA requested the investigation, but Verizon told the commission Nov. 21 it was "engaged in serious settlement discussions" with the union, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said in a scheduling order dated Nov. 22 and released this week. “The Commission strongly encourages settlement,” wrote Administrative Law Judge Joel Cheskis. The ALJ moved the due date for Verizon testimony to Jan. 27 from Dec. 1 and ordered the parties to provide a status report on settlement talks by Jan. 27, unless the matter is resolved sooner. He suspended all other previously set dates, including a plan for February hearings. The commission will set a new procedural schedule if there's no settlement by that date, the ALJ said. “Any settlement submitted for approval must be supported by substantial evidence.” The New York Public Service Commission previously postponed hearings on its Verizon copper probe until April 19 (see 1611250028).