The California Public Utilities Commission will release more than $7 million in California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) support for broadband, commissioners decided Thursday. They voted 3-0 on three separate items that clear the way for projects by fixed wireless ISPs Cruzio and Kwikbit and the Anza Electric Cooperative. The CPUC delayed voting on an AT&T service quality enforcement item and a plan making the California LifeLine foster youth program permanent.

Maryland this week moved one step closer to becoming the 15th state to pass comprehensive online privacy legislation by hosting debate in both chambers on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act (HR-6929) GOP co-sponsor Rep. Marc Molinaro of New York acknowledged Tuesday that Republican opponents of stopgap funding for ACP are an impediment, but one the bill’s backers can overcome. HR-6929 and Senate companion S-3565 would allocate $7 billion for ACP, keeping it alive through FY 2024 (see 2401100056). The FCC froze ACP enrollments last week in keeping with procedures for winding down the program absent more federal funding.

The California Chamber of Commerce “is considering its options,” said a CalChamber spokesperson after a state appeals court on Friday reversed a lower court’s decision to delay a state agency’s enforcement of California Privacy Rights Act regulations (see 2402090078). In June, the California Superior Court in Sacramento had granted a CalChamber petition and stayed any California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) rules for 12 months after they become final (see 2307030025). The privacy agency could have started enforcing CPRA rules July 1, but the lower court’s decision meant rules adopted March 29, wouldn’t take effect for one year. “Because there is no ‘explicit and forceful language’ mandating that the Agency is prohibited from enforcing the Act until (at least) one year after the Agency approves final regulations, the trial court erred in concluding otherwise,” wrote 3rd District Justice Elena Duarte wrote. CalChamber praised the court for noting that the agency “failed to comply with the express terms of the statutory provision regarding the adoption of final regulations,” said the business group’s spokesperson: But CalChamber is disappointed that the appeals court didn’t “agree on a remedy for the Agency’s failure to comply.” The CPPA applauded the decision. “The California voters didn’t intend for businesses to pick and choose which privacy rights to honor,” said CPPA Enforcement Deputy Director Michael Macko: Agency enforcers stand “ready to take it from here.”

California could be first in the nation to codify the FCC’s definition of digital discrimination into state law. Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D) introduced AB-2239 on Wednesday, the California Alliance for Digital Equity said Thursday. “This bill would state the intent of the Legislature to adopt subsequent legislation that codifies a definition of ‘digital discrimination of access’ in state law that conforms to the definition adopted by the Federal Communications Commission,” said a legislative digest on the measure. In a November order (see 2311150040), the FCC defined “digital discrimination of access” as “policies or practices, not justified by genuine issues of technical or economic feasibility, that (1) differentially impact consumers' access to broadband internet access service based on their income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin or (2) are intended to have such differential impact.” Defining digital discrimination could help move a proceeding on digital redlining at the California Public Utilities Commission, said Shayna Englin, California Community Foundation director-digital equity initiative, in an interview. The proceeding stalled amid argument about the definition, said Englin. CPUC digital redlining rules would guide the agency in the years ahead as it distributes $8 billion state and federal broadband funding, she said. Englin predicted a fight between digital equity advocates and the telecom industry, which is expected to oppose AB-2239. The California Broadband and Video Association is reviewing the legislation, said a spokesperson for the state cable group. USTelecom declined to comment. The Los Angeles City Council passed a similar law at the local level last month.

A California appeals court reversed a lower court’s decision to delay a state agency’s enforcement of California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) regulations Friday.

Google asked the FCC for an emergency waiver of rules requiring environmental sensing capability systems to protect federal incumbent users in the citizens broadband radio service band as storms sweep through parts of California. Operations in one dynamic protection area (DPA) lost commercial power while another “suffered physical damage” due to high winds, Google said. In another DPA, the power provider “is currently unable to provide an estimated time for restoration of commercial power,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 15-319.

Verizon and Ericsson completed a trial of advanced low-latency, low-loss, scalable throughput (L4S) capabilities designed to optimize Verizon’s 5G network “for more robust solutions,” including interactive video, remote control of industrial processes and augmented and virtual reality, Verizon said Tuesday. “While the first wave of 5G saw massive network infrastructure deployments, increased 5G adoption, and rapid ecosystem building, the second wave of the 5G era will be characterized by widespread innovation built on speed, massive capacity, low latency, security and reliability,” said Adam Koeppe, Verizon senior vice president-network and technology planning. The L4S trial was conducted at an Ericsson lab in Santa Clara, California, testing an extended reality (XR) application using an XR virtual reality headset over Ericsson’s 5G stand-alone core and using Verizon’s C-band spectrum, Verizon said.

The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) urged the FCC to move forward to ensure “local public-safety control of the band, with local decision-making about how the 4.9 GHz band can best meet a jurisdiction’s current and future needs.” Giving FirstNet control of the band “would reduce ‘local control’ to merely allowing local public-safety officials to choose between quality-of-service levels offered by a national network provider, rather than having actual ownership and control of these critical networks,” CERCI said in a Tuesday filing in docket 07-100. The group provided details on state and local use of the band. Among the examples cited: the California Department of Transportation’s use for autonomous/connected vehicle communications and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s use for public safety communications in its subway and bus systems.

Expect continuing friction at the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference and the WRC-31 between geostationary and non-geostationary orbit satellite operators over interference protections, River Advisors CEO Katherine Gizinski said. She and other panelists Tuesday at the SmallSat Symposium in Silicon Valley said those equivalent power flux density (EPFD) protection items were a hot-button issue at WRC-23. The FCC has seen constellation operators post-WRC-27 joust over EPFD limits (see 2401300032). Several panelists also discussed the changing availability of financing that helped launch numerous space startups in the past nine years.