California’s net neutrality law could remain unenforced for months despite litigation resuming this week. A federal court set a schedule Thursday that would delay the state law at least until Q4, and it could be much longer if DOJ and industry win preliminary injunction against the state (see 2007300041). Timing remains hazy for enforcing Vermont’s frozen law. Net neutrality advocates say the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Mozilla v. FCC allowed state laws; others disagreed.
Utility regulators must address diversity and social justice, said leaders of a NARUC diversity initiative in interviews this week. Amid a national reckoning after the May 25 death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody, NARUC President Brandon Presley last week said he asked Supplier Workforce and Diversity Subcommittee Chair Sadzi Oliva and Consumers and Public Interest Committee Chair Maida Coleman to lead an effort that will include “intentional actions” (see 2007220053).
Independent small LECs suggested ways to tighten proposed conditions in a California Public Utilities Commission plan to conditionally open 13 small LEC markets to wireline competition (see 2007060047). The CPUC may vote Aug. 6. CalTel and other rural telcos still disagree with opening the markets, but stronger conditions could help “avoid discrimination in build-out, prevent cream-skimming, ensure a level playing field ... and fulfill critical regulatory oversight and consumer protection functions,” they said Monday in docket R.11-11-007. Cable operators wanted the CPUC to open the markets, but the California Cable & Telecommunications Association condemned proposed conditions as “harmful to CLECs and ultimately to consumers.” They're “procedurally improper, discriminatory, overly burdensome” and will deter competitive entry, CCTA said. The Utility Reform Network “generally” supported the CPUC proposal. “It will remove entry barriers that currently prevent CLECs from expanding into the service areas of the Small LECs, while at the same time including appropriate protections to ensure that the benefits of competition are not so narrow as to undermine the public interest,” TURN said.
California lawmakers tinkered with rival bills on state broadband funding. Eyes are on the clock after the Assembly Communications Committee postponed Tuesday's hearing on SB-1130 to raise the standard to 25 Mbps symmetrical. The delay was due to an unrelated row over the relative volume of bills in the legislature, and it's the second time the committee delayed the hearing. A $100 billion state stimulus bill unveiled Monday included broadband for distance learning.
Alaska is unlikely to order an inmate calling services rate case “any time soon,” even though the Regulatory Commission of Alaska regulates intrastate rates and tariffs, an RCA spokesperson emailed Monday. NARUC joined the FCC last week in asking state commission members to review ICS intrastate rates but finishing the job in many states could be challenging (see 2007230065 and 2007240045). Alaska Department of Corrections (ADOC) contracting authority affects RCA’s practical ability to exercise ICS authority, the RCA spokesperson said. “ADOC gets to decide the particulars of inmate calling privileges and the security equipment necessary to operate safe telecommunications services in a confinement environment,” which “impacts the rate inputs tremendously and the Commission has been reticent to gainsay any of those representations from ADOC and its contracting agent, Securus.” ADOC voiced concerns to RCA about finding and retaining a service provider, as competitive bidding is more challenging in Alaska because it has fewer corrections facilities than other states, the commission spokesperson said. RCA staff plans to address ICS after completing non-ICS rules in a telecom deregulation docket (see 2006100048), “but likely those will merely affirm the Commission’s ongoing, limited regulatory oversight of inmate telecommunications service and would likely only codify existing conditions placed on Securus’ certificate, including indigent calling allowances and the tracking and submission of Alaska-specific cost information for future rate development.”
A federal judge sought more case law on how much deference to give an FCC statement of interest (SOI) interpreting its RF safety policy as preempting an RF disclosure law in Berkeley, California. At virtual argument Thursday evening Eastern time at U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Judge Edward Chen gave CTIA and Berkeley seven days to provide legal citations on that question and the appropriate standard for overcoming courts’ usual presumption against preemption of local police power. Berkeley outside counsel Larry Lessig told us the Supreme Court supports the city's position that the SOI shouldn't get deference. Other experts differed.
New York legislators passed a state bill seeking a broadband availability study. A-6679 would direct the Public Service Commission to ask the public rather than rely completely on FCC availability data submitted by companies (see 2007130066). The Senate passed the bill Wednesday after the Assembly supported it 141-0 Monday. “On to the Governor's desk,” tweeted sponsor Assemblyman Sean Ryan (D). Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) will review the bill, a spokesperson said Thursday. In Michigan, where Republicans control both legislative bodies, 18 Democrats floated a bill Wednesday to regulate broadband. HB-5949 by Rep. Darrin Camilleri would amend the Michigan Telecom Act to give the PSC “jurisdiction and authority to regulate all providers of broadband service.” The agency would make rules on “billing transparency, pricing, service quality, dispute resolution, nondiscriminatory treatment, service for vulnerable populations, and discontinuance of service,” and could respond to violations by revoking licenses or issuing cease and desist orders. The Michigan Cable Telecommunications Association "opposes any legislation that attempts to regulate the Internet at the state level," which "would have a chilling effect on investment, which would ultimately harm consumers," an MCTA spokesperson emailed Thursday. AT&T didn’t comment.
The FCC applauded NARUC's asking members to review inmate calling service rates (see 2007230041) Thursday. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asked state utility regulators Monday to reduce intrastate ICS prices (see 2007200058), with federal commissioners to vote Aug. 6 on lowering interstate rates (see 2007160072).
State eligible telecom carrier (ETC) designation is useful to the FCC, though it might be time to update that and other USF rules from the 1996 Telecom Act, said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel at NARUC’s virtual summer meeting. Later Wednesday, the state regulator association's board unanimously adopted a telecom resolution opposing Capitol Hill efforts to scrap the ETC requirement (see 2007200054). Preserving the ETC designation is a top issue for state regulators, said NARUC President Brandon Presley in a Tuesday interview. He pledged to move “swiftly” on the association’s social justice pledge.
COVID-19 amplified the need to address broadband gaps, said members of NARUC’s broadband task force in interviews Tuesday. Cable, wireline and wireless networks are holding up to the surge in traffic during the pandemic, but industry agrees with policymakers on the heightened need to expand access, NCTA, CTIA and USTelecom panelists told state regulators' virtual summer meeting.