The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission should reconsider its Frontier Communications’ bankruptcy reorganization OK, said the Minnesota Commerce Department and the Laborers District Council of Minnesota and North Dakota (aka LIUNA, the Laborers International Union of North America) Thursday. Communications Workers of America presented new and relevant information in a Dec. 28 petition for reconsideration, the department and LIUNA each said in docket 20-50. New information includes that the company made investment commitments to at least three other states, said the department: “Deterioration of Frontier’s network is a significant concern that could be exacerbated by its commitments to other states and virtual separation decision making.” CWA raised “new doubts about Frontier’s ability to meet its obligations in Minnesota under the proposed reorganization plan, and underscoring the concerns raised by LIUNA regarding potential downstream impacts,” LIUNA said. The PUC cleared Frontier's reorg in September and last month sought recons (see 2012080012). Frontier urged the PUC to deny CWA's petition, in a Thursday filing, saying the "foundation" of Minnesota's reorg OK "is not affected by actions in other states." Granting reconsideration would "cause long delays and substantial harm to Minnesota consumers, and even an unresolved petition leaves uncertainty," the carrier said.
Washington state will weigh a proposed $7.2 million fine for Lumen that’s more than 14 times what the company agreed to pay the FCC in a Dec. 14 settlement for a two-day 911 outage in late 2018 that affected most states (see 2012140058 and 1901280023). Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission staff alleged Tuesday the company, then called CenturyLink, committed about 72,000 violations of four state laws and rules, including 24,000 for failing to transmit 911 calls and 15 for failing to promptly notify public safety answering points (PSAPs) about the outage that affected about 7.4 million state residents. The three-member state commission will schedule a hearing on staff’s recommendation, the UTC said. Staff “found that the outage was due to a preventable technical error and related deficiencies within CenturyLink’s network” and “that CenturyLink incorrectly configured network devices and did not build safeguards into their traffic routing infrastructure, significantly prolonging the outage.” The carrier didn’t provide complete failed-call data requested by the state commission, so staff averaged emergency call volumes to determine the number of possible missed or dropped calls during the outage, the UTC said. The proposed fine is “misguided and misdirected” because a third-party vendor’s faulty network equipment caused the December 2018 outage, a Lumen spokesperson emailed Wednesday. CenturyLink-served PSAPs had no failed 911 calls, she said. “Service providers that rely on CenturyLink’s network to transport their traffic, including 911, may have been impacted. If another provider's 911 service was impacted during the event, it is their responsibility, not CenturyLink’s, to ensure redundancy is built into their network.” The UTC emailed a line in the report: "Regardless of whether a PSAP was receiving service from CenturyLink or Comtech, during phase one all Washington E911 calls were dependent on West, CenturyLink’s vendor, for [automatic location identification] services and on CenturyLink for call origination services." At the time of the outage, CenturyLink managed PSAPs in some of Washington’s most populated counties, including King, Spokane and Snohomish, the report said.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) doesn't plan to restructure the capital's 911 call center after Office of Unified Communications Director Karima Holmes' resignation, Bowser said Tuesday. The mayor praised Holmes for leaving OUC “so much better than what she found.” Others including D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC) Tiffani Nichole Johnson said the next director must overhaul the office, amid an audit and reports of 911 dispatchers sending responders to incorrect addresses and other problems.
It could be well into 2023 before the government faces Google in U.S. District Court in Washington. At a Friday telephonic hearing, Judge Amit Mehta set a Sept. 12, 2023, trial start date for DOJ and states’ antitrust lawsuit against Google. Mehta said he's “anxious” to get Thursday’s separate antitrust complaint against Google by 38 attorneys general (see 2012170063) on the same discovery schedule for efficiency. Google attorney John Schmidtlein agreed the new case should be assigned to Mehta and consolidated with the first case for discovery, but Google isn’t ready to take a position on whether trials should be combined. On states’ new case, Mehta asked Google to say by Jan. 8 if it will answer the complaint or file a motion to dismiss; the judge set a status hearing for Jan. 21 at 11 a.m. The parties proposed (in Pacer) a scheduling and case management order Dec. 11 and agreed (in Pacer) to a protective order last Monday. Google said (in Pacer) Thursday it doesn’t oppose California joining as a plaintiff in the DOJ case, which Michigan and Wisconsin on Thursday also asked to join. Texas and nine other states separately sued Google Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Sherman, Texas (see 2012160059).
California will extend the FCC’s expired pandemic connectivity pledge for 90 days, California Public Utilities Commissioners agreed unanimously at their livestreamed meeting Thursday. The nonvoluntary moratorium on disconnections and late fees amid COVID-19 will cover traditional landline, facilities-based VoIP and wireless providers. Commissioners also voted 5-0 to make public much of a 2019 service quality report on AT&T and Frontier Communications.
Google got slapped Thursday with another antitrust lawsuit, this time from 35 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico (see 2012170037). As with states’ lawsuit against Facebook last week (see 2012100003), attorneys general from both parties in most states joined the complaint against Google, alleging the search firm violated Sherman Antitrust Act Section 2. Google said the AGs would harm search results at businesses’ cost.
Consumer groups supported industry’s call to narrow California's plan to revive and require the FCC voluntary Keep Americans Connected pledge. Cable had urged the California Public Utilities Commission limit a disconnections moratorium to customers facing economic hardships due to COVID-19 (see 2012100015). Narrowing the scope to affected customers is fine if it covers those facing financial impact or illness, replied the National Consumer Law Center and Center for Accessible Technology, emailed Monday to the service list for docket R.18-03-011. If denied, customers should have a simple way to appeal, the groups added. Wireless carriers balked at those groups’ suggestion to cover prepaid wireless. “Applying the moratorium to prepaid generally is impracticable, and in some regards impossible,” CTIA said. Commissioners vote Thursday.
ISPs will pay $1 per pole annually for attaching to electric cooperative infrastructure in Georgia’s unserved areas over the next six years and nearly $30 in served areas, Georgia Public Service Commissioners agreed at a virtual meeting Tuesday. They voted 5-0 for a modified version of a dual-rate regime suggested by electric membership cooperatives setting how much EMCs may charge telecoms.
Fewer than two in 10 state utility regulators were people of color (POC) in 2020, while more than one in three were women, showed a Communications Daily analysis of National Utilities Diversity Council (NUDC) data. More than half of the commissions or equivalent bodies had zero POC as members. Six had no women and four had none from either category.
Fewer than two in 10 state utility regulators were people of color (POC) in 2020, while more than one in three were women, showed a Communications Daily analysis of National Utilities Diversity Council (NUDC) data. More than half of the commissions or equivalent bodies had zero POC as members. Six had no women and four had none from either category.