Only about 10% of the locations being passed through projects funded by New York's Municipal Infrastructure Program are unserved or underserved, meaning the state is financing overbuilding almost 90% of the time, according to an analysis from the New York Law School's Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute. In a blog post Thursday, ACLP Director Michael Santorelli and Senior Fellow Alex Karras said that kind of overbuilding diverts funds from the 61,000 remaining unserved and underserved locations in the state.
A New Jersey Senate committee voted Thursday to advance a bill that would create a telecommunications fee to fund call center and mental health services connected with 988 calls. SB-4502 would add a 40-cent 988 fee to monthly customer bills for commercial mobile service and IP-enabled voice calls but wouldn’t apply to Lifeline customers. The money would be used to fund 988 call services, crisis outreach and response services related to 988 calls, and a public awareness campaign.
A national infrastructure bank could help fund U.S. broadband deployments, new rail and mass transit projects, and repairs of bridges, roads and schools, according to a Michigan House resolution introduced this week by 19 Democratic state lawmakers. HR-216 urges congressional support for the National Infrastructure Bank Act (HR-5356), which would create a public bank that would provide loans for infrastructure projects.
Massachusetts state Rep. Hadley Luddy (D) and Orleans, Massachusetts, Fire Chief Geof Deering urged lawmakers Thursday to support HB-3974, which sets a Jan. 1, 2030, deadline for universal mobile coverage in the state. Cape Cod's unreliable cell service is an issue "I hear about constantly" from district residents, Luddy said as she presented the bill at a Joint Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee hearing. She said the problem worsens in the summer, when Cape Cod's population doubles.
AT&T and Boldyn Networks announced this week the launch of 5G service in the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Crosstown G train line segments, the first to do so. AT&T customers traveling on the G line between Court Square station in Long Island City, Queens, and the Bedford-Nostrand Avenue station in Brooklyn “can now enjoy cellular service in tunnels,” the companies said.
Florida "finds itself at ground zero" on the question of whether do not call registry protections extend to sending text messages, with three different federal courts disagreeing, Bradley lawyers Alexis Buese and Stephen Parsley blogged last week. That raises the odds that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will have to weigh in on the issue, they said. This year saw the Northern and Middle districts of Florida finding in separate decisions that texts aren't calls within the meaning of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act's DNC sections, but the Southern District decided the opposite, the lawyers wrote. Businesses shouldn't assume uniform protection across districts, and compliance strategies "should remain conservative until appellate clarity emerges."
Alabama state Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D) reintroduced legislation Wednesday proposing to create an Ebony Alert System for missing Black youths. Under HB-48, local law enforcement could request that the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency activate an Ebony Alert, with radio, TV, cable, satellite and social media systems "encouraged to cooperate" with disseminating it. The bill was referred to the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee. Givan introduced similar legislation in 2024.
Florida residents' participation in Lifeline rose significantly from the end of June 2024 to the end of June 2025, the state's Public Service Commission said in a draft report released Tuesday. As of the end of June, there were 332,887 Lifeline subscribers in Florida, up 120,644 from a year earlier, the PSC said. The growth in subscribership was likely due to the number of wireless companies that were granted eligible telecommunications carrier designation, it said. A 2024 change by the Florida state legislature expanded the PSC's jurisdiction to grant ETC designation to wireless carriers for Lifeline purposes, and 13 wireless and wireline carriers were subsequently designated as such.
Steven Schwerbel, WISPA's director of state advocacy, discussed the options that data centers offer for “affordable middle-mile broadband connections” in testimony Wednesday before the Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Science, Technology and AI. The panel held a hearing on “demystifying” AI and the impact of data centers in the state.
The Public Advocates Office at the California Public Utilities Commission is urging the agency to sign off on the Sept. 4 agreement between the PAO and Verizon in the company's proposed Frontier Communications acquisition. In a filing Friday, the PAO said the agreement "provides substantial public benefits in fiber and fixed wireless access infrastructure deployment [and] affordable broadband access," and its adoption as part of the Verizon/Frontier approval "will ensure that Californians enjoy these substantial public benefits." Verizon and Frontier also filed proposed agreements Sept. 4 that they struck with the Communications Workers of America (see 2509050008) and the California Emerging Technology Fund.