A possible $2 billion clawback "would keep broadband as a key state priority," California Assembly Communications Committee Chair Tasha Boerner (D) said this week. With the state facing a tough fiscal situation, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) Friday announced a May budget revision that included taking back promised additional funding for the state’s middle-mile network and eliminating a broadband fund for local governments. However, some digital equity advocates are sounding the alarm with state legislators.
The possible end of the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) isn't an excuse to make sweeping changes to state broadband grant rules, ISPs told the California Public Utilities Commission this week. In Monday comments (docket R.20-08-021), AT&T, Frontier Communications, cable companies and small rural local exchange carriers urged the CPUC to swiftly reject last month’s The Utility Reform Network (TURN) petition to modify rules for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband infrastructure account (see 2404150062).
The Vermont legislature passed bills on privacy and kids’ online safety Friday. After back-and-forth on amendments, the House and Senate agreed to a comprehensive data privacy bill (H-121). While final text wasn’t available Monday, “reports indicate that it has a narrow private right of action focused on data brokers and larger data holders and limited to the bill’s sensitive data and consumer health data provisions,” Husch Blackwell attorney David Stauss blogged. That might be a first among states (see 2403220040). The legislature also agreed to an age-appropriate design code bill (S-289) like the California law. Pouncing immediately, tech industry group NetChoice urged Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) to veto S-289. The bill “would chill lawful speech online and negatively impact Vermont’s vibrant small business community,” wrote NetChoice General Counsel Carl Szabo: “Similar requirements … have already been challenged and are currently enjoined.” Design It For Us, a youth advocacy group that originally campaigned to pass California’s kids code law, applauds the legislature “for working to protect young people from online harms and passing much needed Kids Code legislation despite industry efforts to defeat it,” said co-Chair Zamaan Qureshi in a statement. Accountable Tech, another supporter of such laws, also lauded passage of S-289. “It’s clear that momentum is on the side of young people fighting for safer online spaces as Vermont becomes the third state to pass age-appropriate design code legislation with the Vermont Kids Code,” said Executive Director Nicole Gill.
A California proposal to allow people without social security numbers (SSNs) to sign up for low-income telecom support was mostly supported in comments Friday at the California Public Utilities Commission. However, consumer advocates sought tweaks to the CPUC staff proposal to ensure maximum inclusion and disagreed with T-Mobile’s Assurance Wireless on whether accepting applications without SSNs should be mandatory. Other companies generally praised the staff plan while seeking more clarity on certain details.
California might deny AT&T's application for carrier-of-last-resort (COLR) relief. The state's Public Utilities Commission will vote during its June 20 meeting on a proposed decision dismissing the carrier’s application in docket R.23-03-003. Comments are due May 30. Also, the CPUC said it plans to open a rulemaking on possibly revising COLR rules. The state commission’s withdrawal rules require another existing COLR or a replacement in the area where a company is leaving, CPUC Administrative Law Judge Thomas Glegola said in the proposal. “No other COLR serves AT&T’s service territory. No potential COLR applied to replace AT&T.” The commission delayed the proceeding so it could find possible replacements (see 2403120052). The CPUC received more than 5,000 public comments about the AT&T application and more than 5,800 people attended eight public forums around the state, said a CPUC news release. Many raised concerns that wireless and VoIP were unreliable, the agency said. “Despite AT&T’s contention that providers of voice alternatives to landline service -- such as VoIP or mobile wireless services -- can fill the gap,” the CPUC’s tentative decision finds that the carrier “failed to demonstrate the availability of replacement providers willing and able to serve as COLR, nor did AT&T prove that alternative providers met the COLR definition,” the CPUC said. The COLR rules don’t stop AT&T from retiring copper or investing in fiber, the agency added. AT&T is disappointed because “we’d hoped the commission would allow us the opportunity to demonstrate why the number of options for voice service available to customers make the COLR obligation unnecessary,” a company spokesperson said. “Not surprisingly, no providers were interested in bidding on a service with a declining number of customers given the competitive options available in today’s marketplace.” AT&T looks forward to participating in future CPUC evidentiary hearings on COLR rules, the spokesperson added.
Electric utilities are urging that the FCC allow networked operations for drones in shared-use parts of the 5030-5091 MHz band, where technically feasible. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel recently circulated an order on the band (see 2404080065). Electric utilities representatives met with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr. Drones allow businesses in the critical infrastructure industry "to more efficiently inspect and repair infrastructure, improve worker safety, and maintain consistent, reliable service for customers,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 22-323. Represented at the meeting were Florida Power & Light, Pacific Gas & Electric, Xcel Energy and the Edison Electric Institute. The utilities offered examples of how they use uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS). “PG&E’s 79,000-square mile service territory includes extremely remote areas such as the Trinity Alps in Northwest California,” the filing said: “To inspect and maintain infrastructure in such difficult-to-reach areas, crews work extended shifts under difficult conditions, such as poor roads, which increases the risk that crews and property will suffer injury. … By allowing utilities to inspect infrastructure remotely, UAS reduces the need for unnecessary truck rolls, thereby improving worker safety.”
The number of states with privacy laws reached 18 after Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed SB-541/HB-567 on Thursday. Vermont and Minnesota could soon join the ranks. While not first, Maryland “sets the new standard” for state privacy laws and “raises the bar” for Congress, said Caitriona Fitzgerald, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) deputy director, in an interview. Meanwhile, in California, the first state with a privacy law, board members of the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) slammed the preemptive current draft of a privacy bill from Congress.
House Republicans pushed back during a Friday Communications Subcommittee field hearing in Bakersfield, California, against calls for Congress to allocate stopgap funding to the FCC’s ailing affordable connectivity program and the rollout of NTIA’s $42.5 billion broadband equity, access and deployment program. ACP supporters believe they made progress last week toward securing a path that keeps the program funded in FY 2024 despite proposals attaching funding to the FAA Reauthorization Act (HR-3935) failing in the Senate (see 2405100046).
T-Mobile voluntarily dismissed its complaint against the California Public Utilities Commission regarding the state’s shift to a per-line universal service fund surcharge. The 9th Circuit Court last month affirmed the U.S. District Court for Northern California decision to deny a preliminary injunction against the CPUC (see 2404260066). The 9th Circuit said the carrier failed to show a likelihood of success. “This notice of voluntary dismissal is being filed with the Court before Defendants have served either an answer or a motion for summary judgment … and by operation of law, the dismissal is without prejudice,” T-Mobile said Thursday at the district court (case 3:23-cv-00483-LB).
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed a kids safety bill (HB-603) modeled after the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, his office confirmed Thursday. Moore signed despite the tech industry's veto request. NetChoice General Counsel Carl Szabo said the Maryland law is unconstitutional and will have unintended consequences, all without making the internet safer for kids. Meanwhile, two other states advanced bills aimed at protecting children online Wednesday. The Pennsylvania House voted 105-95 to pass HB-2017, which would set age-verification and content-flagging requirements for social media companies (see 2403190050). The bill will go to the Senate. In South Carolina, the Senate voted 43-0 for H-3424, another bill requiring age verification to keep kids younger than 18 off pornographic websites. The House previously passed the bill (see 2402010024) but will have to vote again to concur with Senate changes.