The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Friday nominated Nebraska Commissioner Tim Schram as the representative of state telecom regulators on the Universal Service Administrative Co. board. Schram is chair of NARUC’s Committee on Telecommunications.
New Jersey would tax commercial data collectors who gather information about state residents, with a portion of the receipts going to cover crisis intervention services and crisis care coordination service costs for people using the state's 988 Suicide Prevention and Behavioral Health Crisis hotline, under a bill introduced Monday by Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D). SB-4908 would tax data collectors based on the number of New Jersey consumers whose data is collected each month, and $60 million of the tax revenue would be dedicated to 988 response services.
Verizon's plans to cut about 13,000 jobs (see 2511200054) will affect only management in California, not union-represented employees there, company representatives told California Public Utilities Commission President Alice Reynolds. In a CPUC ex parte filing posted Monday, Verizon said the workforce reduction won't affect its obligations or performance under settlement agreements in its pending acquisition of Frontier Communications.
A broadening of Texas' version of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act earlier this year didn't "explicitly carve out a defense on the basis of consent," Mintz class-action lawyer Esteban Morales wrote last week. Even businesses that send text messages with otherwise compliant consent might still need to comply "with the statute’s onerous registration requirements," he said. But litigation brought by Ecommerce Marketers Alliance against Texas and its secretary of state about the lack of a clear consent defense has ended with "an industry-friendly order" that gives companies "powerful ammunition" against telephone solicitation claims. The plaintiffs had filed for a preliminary injunction, and in response, the state took the position that the law in fact should be interpreted to include a defense based on consent, Morales said. The parties then filed a joint motion for dismissal, he noted, and an order last week from the U.S. District Court for Western Texas said businesses operating consent-based text message marketing campaigns are specifically exempted from having to go through the registration step.
The California Public Utilities Commission has rejected the Center for Accessible Technology's (CFAT) petition seeking an examination of diversity-related conditions in T-Mobile's purchase of Sprint. In a decision last week, CPUC said that while it was denying the petition, it has ways of monitoring and ensuring compliance with the merger approval terms. The CPUC's 2020 approval of the deal included the requirement that the combined company "strive to achieve and maintain a diverse board of directors that includes substantial representation by people of color" and that it increase the diversity of its California workforce and its suppliers. The CPUC said the center's April petition didn't provide any specifics about how its interests are affected by T-Mobile’s alleged noncompliance, but it can talk to the CPUC about the compliance monitor's work to make sure T-Mobile is in compliance.
The California Public Utilities Commission voted Thursday to start a rulemaking to update the state's Lifeline program. CPUC had been scheduled to vote that day on submitting the state's final BEAD proposal to NTIA (see 2511180007), but that was delayed until the agency's Dec. 18 meeting.
NTIA has approved West Virginia's final BEAD proposal, according to Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) and U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. Morrisey said Friday that the BEAD funds will allow the state to connect more than 73,000 locations. The state noted that the final plan uses $545 million of its $1.2 billion BEAD allocation -- down from the $959 million that it had proposed spending under the first iteration of BEAD. "While there is still a long road ahead to getting more West Virginians connected, we are well on our way with today’s announcement," Capito said Thursday night.
NTIA said Thursday it has approved Texas' final BEAD proposal, two days after the agency's first announcement of final proposal approvals, which covered 18 states and territories (see 2511180007). While Texas' final proposal wasn't due until Friday, it was submitted nearly a month early due to the state's "diligent work to deliver a compliant, high-quality application," NTIA said. The agency "was then able to grant expeditious approval, shaving months off Texans’ wait time for broadband access." While Texas was allocated $3.3 billion in BEAD, the state's final proposal uses $1.3 billion of those funds for deployment, NTIA noted.
Broadband infrastructure is now fully funded in Maryland's Cecil, Talbot, Dorchester, Somerset and Worcester counties, "a major milestone in the state's effort to close the digital divide," its Department of Housing and Community Development said Thursday. The agency said $77 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding will provide connectivity for 16,208 households, giving the five counties 100% availability. To date, 99.5% of Maryland is connected or has been awarded funding for internet connectivity, it added.
The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management would establish a hyperlocal text alert system for flood and severe weather conditions under legislation (AB-5993) introduced this week by Assemblyman Christopher Tully (D). The text alerts would integrate real-time reports from localities, flood sensors, river height monitors, localized emergency warning systems, the National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management System, among other data sources. Those who opt in would receive information on rainfall levels, local river levels, water level rise, storm surge, reported flood damage and the location and severity of floods exceeding 1 foot of water. The bill was referred to the Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee.