Cable has Reservations About Calif. Broadband, Disaster Bills
The cable industry raised fiscal concerns about a broadband bill to update the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). The Senate Appropriations Committee placed AB-14 in its “suspense file” Monday, a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly and that…
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!
will be taken up later. The California Cable Telecommunications Association would support AB-14 if amended to address “serious fiscal impacts,” said Vice President-Government Affairs Bernie Orozco at the livestreamed hearing. Some RF safety advocates raised concerns about the bill supporting wireless deployment. Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and other localities supported AB-14. A companion bill (SB-4) is up for vote Thursday in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The CASF bills are nearing final votes (see 2107090049). Orozco later opposed a communications disaster reporting measure (AB-1100) as “duplicative and unnecessary.” The committee placed it on suspense. Other bills moved to that file Monday included AB-41 about agency coordination on conduit deployment, AB-74 to require various California LifeLine enrollment and recertification process changes and the cable-backed AB-1560 on distance learning.