CPUC Starts Work Implementing CASF Revamp Law
The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously cleared multiple procedural orders partly implementing a 2017 law to revamp the California Advanced Services Fund. Commissioners voted 5-0 at their livestreamed Thursday meeting to approve changes to the “right of first refusal” process…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
and reinstating a CASF surcharge of 0.56 percent on intrastate telecom revenue, effective March 1. “Frontier supports the CPUC moving swiftly to implement this important legislation to help close the Digital Divide,” a spokeswoman said. The law ensures “no overbuild of infrastructure deployment funded by private investment and the federal Connect America Fund,” she said. Tellus Venture Associates President Steve Blum said the “heavy lifting on implementing AB 1665 is still to come,” and probably will happen in January or February. CPUC still must redo grant procedures and screening methods and implement a new adoption program, said Blum, a local government consultant who opposed the legislation because he said it favored incumbents like Frontier.