Arkansas senators voted 35-0 to lift municipal broadband restrictions, sending the measure Tuesday to the House. SB-74 increases competition for broadband, the “new electricity of the 21st century,” said sponsor Sen. Ricky Hill (R) at the livestreamed floor session. The bill would declare a broadband emergency and immediately lift restrictions for all governments and public education. It would amend state law to say they may "directly or indirectly" provide voice, data, broadband, video or wireless telecom services, including the right to "acquire, construct, furnish, equip, own, operate, sell, convey, lease, rent, let, assign, dispose of, contract for, or otherwise deal in facilities and apparatus for" those services. If a government raises funds through bonds, it must partner with a private entity to provide service. SB-74 “fully supports local control,” emailed Arkansas Municipal League Executive Director Mark Hayes. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance supports the measure, said Community Broadband Networks Initiative Director Christopher Mitchell. Co-sponsor Sen. Breanne Davis (R) pushed on the issue “two years ago, and I think she backed off a bit to give the big cable and telephone companies a little more time to do something to solve the problem,” Mitchell emailed. “They haven't, and now she and many others across the political spectrum believe communities need to be able to invest in themselves to ensure everyone has high-quality Internet access.” Nebraska and Washington state might also reduce muni broadband barriers. The Washington House Community and Economic Development Committee has a hearing Wednesday on HB-1336 by Rep. Drew Hansen (D), who promised last fall to kill all broadband restrictions on cities, sovereign tribes, rural utility districts and other government entities (see 2009180038). Nebraska Sen. Justin Wayne (D) last week introduced LB-656 authorizing municipalities to provide broadband.
A Florida Senate panel supported requiring warrants for police searches of cellphones, other portable communication devices and smart speakers, except in emergencies. The Criminal Justice Committee voted 7-1 for SB-144 at a livestreamed Tuesday hearing. “Our founding fathers could not have imagined a world in which we have Amazon Alexas and cellphones and GPS systems that are on our wrists,” said Vice Chair Jeff Brandes (R). Sen. George Gainer (R) voted no after asking, “Wouldn’t this bill interfere with the apprehension of pretty dangerous people?” Nobody on the committee opposed a bill to allow police to use drones for crowd control and traffic management. SB-44 wouldn’t allow police to use drones to collect evidence of violations, and the panel amended the bill to remove a section that would have allowed drones for monitoring crowds of 50 or more. There appeared to be some confusion about if the bill would allow drones to be used in high-speed chases. Sponsor Sen. Tom Wright (R) said he intended to allow police to send drones after escaping vehicles, but committee Staff Director Lauren Jones said the bill as written wouldn’t allow that.
Enforcement looks again to be central to the privacy debate in Washington state this year. Rep. Shelley Kloba (D) said in an interview she will soon introduce a bill with a private right of action, unlike in Sen. Reuven Carlyle’s measure that failed the past two years amid House objections that it lacked teeth. Carlyle (D) told us he now sees more openness for passing SB-5062, though the American Civil Liberties Union remains opposed. Different political dynamics in the House could factor into the bill's fate.
A Washington state Senate panel cleared a privacy bill 12-1 at a virtual meeting Thursday. Environment, Energy and Technology Committee ranking member Doug Ericksen (R) voted no to Chairman Reuven Carlyle’s (D) SB-5062. Ericksen proposed and withdrew amendments to require opt-in consent for collecting data and to add a private right of action. The committee unanimously adopted a substitute amendment with changes including an exemption for air carriers and the state judicial branch. At a hearing last week, some raised concerns about the bill’s opt-out approach and lack of private right to sue (see 2101140047). Later in the meeting’s hearing phase, cities opposed -- and the wireless industry took no position on -- SB-5110, meant to increase internet access by modifying permitting and other local telecom requirements. CTIA would work with Ericksen to better align the bill with federal wireless infrastructure rules, said Assistant Vice President-State Legislative Affairs Beth Cooley. CTIA also opposes Ericksen’s SB-5112 to require that ISPs give customers free VPN service, because it’s preempted by the Communications Act and unnecessary in a competitive market, said Director-State Legislative Affairs Lisa McCabe.
Worker and consumer groups sought to tighten conditions on Frontier Communications’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization as the list of remaining state OKs dwindled to two. The deal got FCC and West Virginia approvals last week (see 2101150018 and 2101140032). The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said Tuesday the deal may move forward with Frontier’s voluntary commitments, including $50 million over four years on service quality, maintenance and upgrades, and fiber to at least 15,000 locations by 2028. The promises “adequately address the troubling trend regarding Frontier’s infraction rate,” PUC Secretary Rosemary Chiavetta wrote in docket A-2020-3020004. Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) plans to vote Feb. 3 on last week’s draft decision. Attorney General William Tong (D) mostly supports proposed conditions, especially requiring fiber to 100,000 more customers by 2025, he commented Wednesday in docket 20-04-31. Tong urged PURA to lengthen to five years from two the term of a jobs condition not to permit involuntary attrition of its workforce or moving the corporate headquarters. Communications Workers of America said Connecticut isn’t getting as good a deal as California or West Virginia. Require Frontier to deploy fiber to 200,000 locations, spend at least $400 million in capital by 2025 and keep technician and customer service jobs, CWA said. Frontier supported the PURA draft even though it said the headquarters requirement may exceed the state regulator’s jurisdiction. Require the telco to address consumer complaints about copper service problems and call center performance and to target fiber commitments, AARP said. “Absent a more specific commitment, Frontier [could] focus on large businesses, and the most profitable locations.” At the California Public Utilities Commission, where a vote is expected in March, the Greenlining Institute and Center for Accessible Technology commented Wednesday that Frontier’s settlement with CWA and other consumer advocates “fails to ensure that the transaction will specifically benefit communities of color and persons with disabilities.” Those groups aren’t necessarily covered by a condition for low-income neighborhoods, they said in docket A.20-05-010. Adopt that settlement and two separate ones with the Yurok Tribe and California Emerging Technology Fund, the carrier urged. The tribe supports the CWA and CETF pacts if its own agreement is accepted, it said here and here. Comments on the Yurok settlement are due Jan. 27, ruled Administrative Law Judge Peter Wercinski.
Problematic FCC maps and a rush to meet a federal deadline to use coronavirus relief money factor into a dispute over Wyoming broadband support, said the different sides in interviews. Tongue River Communications said it could go out of business due to Wyoming subsidizing overbuilding by Visionary Communications. The state said it relied on the commission’s Form 477 data to find the area unserved and lacked time for challenges, with the Dec. 30 deadline in March's Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Cares) Act. “There’s blame all around, but it can be correctly done,” said former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly.
Washington state’s attorney general office said it's “encouraged” by changes to a privacy bill that failed in two previous years due to enforcement and other questions (see 2003120035). The AG office recommends adding a sunset date to the right to cure in SB-5062, and seeks a private right of action, said AG office Legislative Director Yasmin Trudeau at a Senate Environment, Energy and Technology virtual hearing Thursday. Consumer advocates raised concerns that the bill, with opt-out rather than opt-in protections, puts too much onus on the consumer to exercise their rights compared with companies. It provides an “illusion of privacy protections,” with too many exemptions and not enough teeth, said American Civil Liberties Union-Washington Technology and Liberty Project Manager Jennifer Lee: That “corporate-centric approach” failed in previous sessions. Including a private right of action needn’t lead to a flood of complaints if appropriately limited, said Washington State Association for Justice Government Affairs Director Larry Shannon. The bill fails to cover Google and Facebook, while preempting local governments from making stronger protections, said Consumer Federation of America Director-Consumer Protection and Privacy Susan Grant. SB-5062 builds on the General Data Protection Regulation and California Privacy Right Act, said Microsoft Senior Director-Public Policy Ryan Harkins. Business groups including the Washington Technology Industry Association and Washington Retail Association also supported the bill. The bill would exempt nonprofits for five years, but the American Heart Association thinks it should never apply, said Senior Attorney Kristen Knauf. Millions of dollars in compliance costs mean that much less funding for cardiovascular research, she warned. Sponsor Sen. Reuven Carlyle (D) said he worked hard to incorporate suggestions: “This has been a long two-and-a-half years on this issue.” The committee plans to meet again Jan. 21 on SB-5062.
The FCC cleared Frontier Communications’ bankruptcy reorganization Thursday with conditions. Frontier Communications promised fiber to states that waited to clear the bankrupt carrier's reorganization. Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) proposed conditional OK Tuesday. Frontier offered voluntary commitments to Pennsylvania commissioners last week and reached settlements last month in California and West Virginia. Decisions are expected in the coming weeks before April.
Lumen restored 911 service in eight Minnesota counties where dispatchers couldn’t hear callers’ voices on emergency calls Monday, said the Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Emergency Communication Networks division. The division reported 911 service restored at 9:20 p.m. It reported earlier that it was alerted to problems at 3 p.m. Affected counties were Dodge, Freeborn, Mower, Olmsted, Rice, Steele, Wabasha and Winona. “Some customers in southeastern Minnesota experienced a disruption in 911 service,” a Lumen spokesperson said Tuesday. “All services have been restored.” Affected callers could hear the 911 dispatcher, but dispatchers couldn’t hear callers from 12:56-8:08 p.m., the division said in a Tuesday update. As a workaround, public safety answering points used displayed caller information to contact callers over administrative lines. PSAPs urged people to use 10-digit nonemergency numbers, and text-to-911 was working, the division said. No emergency calls went unanswered, it said. Lumen initially blamed a fiber cut, and now blames “a bad card that supports a large national fiber” in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the division said. Engineers restored service by rebooting the faulty equipment. Lumen’s investigation continues and will provide a “reason for outage” in three to five business days, per its contract. The outage occurred during the final year of the state’s five-year contract with the former CenturyLink.
Texas legislators probably can’t quickly fix a state USF on the brink of collapse, a top state lawmaker told us Friday. The Public Utility Commission, which has been unwilling to make changes on its own authority, sought legislative guidance in a competition report this month. AT&T and cable companies agreed it's the legislature's job. Small telcos facing possible bankruptcy worry legislative relief won’t come fast enough, said Texas Telephone Association (TTA) Executive Director Mark Seale. Nebraska and Oklahoma commissioners could soon make USF contribution method changes after hearings this and last week.