The Communications Workers of America claimed foul play Monday on T-Mobile and Sprint's comments on their deal made last week at the New York Public Service Commission in docket 18-C-0396. The carriers urged the PSC to clear their deal, citing big benefits to the state. CWA and a state consumer advocate said the companies' initial New York application was deficient. Reviews continue in California and elsewhere.
ORLANDO -- State regulators’ relationship with the FCC “needs some work,” said NARUC Second Vice President Paul Kjellander in an interview at the association’s annual conference this month. Federal USF contribution modification could raise tension next year if the FCC continues to exclude states from the process, he said. The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, holding its annual event concurrently with NARUC, remains concerned about deregulation and consumers losing protection as telecom technology moves to the IP world, NASUCA President Elin Swanson Katz told us.
ORLANDO -- Utilities should demand faster release of 900 MHz spectrum for infrastructure cybersecurity efforts, said former FCC and California Public Utilities Commission member Rachelle Chong Tuesday at NARUC's annual conference (see 1811130001). “You know how FirstNet got spectrum just for emergency responders? We want utilities to have spectrum just for utility-critical infrastructure.”
ORLANDO -- The FCC should extend the Mobility Fund II challenge process by more than three months to fix a deficient process, said a NARUC resolution cleared Monday by the Telecom Committee and Tuesday by the board. At NARUC's annual meeting (see 1811130035), the committee voted unanimously for the resolution after tweaking some language to address other commissioners’ concerns. Idaho Commissioner Paul Kjellander will step down as Telecom Committee chairman to join NARUC leadership, he said Monday.
The California Public Utilities Commission declined to update privacy rules for wireless carriers. Voting unanimously for the consent agenda, commissioners at Thursday's meeting denied consumer advocates’ petition for rulemaking to toughen wireless consumer proprietary network information rules (see 1810250043). They OK’d AT&T and Frontier Communications plans to make up for 2017 service-quality failures by investing $2 million and $4.4 million, respectively. By not pursuing wireless CPNI rules, the CPUC “missed an opportunity to protect consumers, but we expect to hold this Commission to its promise to monitor the business practices of California communications companies and to report back,” emailed The Utility Reform Network Managing Director-San Diego Christine Mailloux. This year’s California privacy law is “riddled with exceptions and loopholes that were necessary to survive the legislative process against strong corporate interests,” she said. Wireless carriers "believe consumers are best served by uniform, national privacy standards across the digital economy, enshrined by Congress," said CTIA Senior Vice President-State Affairs Jamie Hastings. "We commend the CPUC for declining to impose regulations that would not be in the best interest of Californians.”
Getting fast broadband for residents is worth the fight against incumbent industry over municipal broadband, said Connecticut mayors and state legislators Thursday. Officials at a Connecticut State Broadband Office and Next Century Cities forum livestreamed from Hartford dared incoming Gov. Ned Lamont (D) to focus on future gain instead of preserving the status quo. Tuesday’s election brought the state a Democratic trifecta (see 1811070043). Local governments and the state consumer counsel are suing the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority for agreeing with ISPs “municipal gain” space on poles may not be used for muni broadband (see 1811010036).
Industry warned the Oregon Public Utility Commission about implementing the state’s net neutrality law restricting procurement to ISPs that don’t follow open-internet rules (see 1809250018). It’s "widely believed" that law "is vulnerable to legal challenge,” CenturyLink commented this week in docket AR-618: "CenturyLink hopes that Oregon will reconsider this path.” If the PUC acts, it should clarify that obligations don't exceed the FCC's now-moot 2015 rules, the carrier said. Federal law pre-empts Oregon from regulating broadband internet access service, CTIA commented: “State net neutrality rules could also have a negative impact on contracting with Oregon governmental entities by creating significant uncertainty surrounding compliance.” ACLU and the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board urged the PUC to dismiss legal pressure. “Notwithstanding exhaustive threats from local and national cable telecommunications associations to sue the state," the PUC “has every right and responsibility to carry forward as instructed by the Oregon legislature,” they said.
New York voters removed a big obstacle to passing a state net neutrality bill by flipping the state Senate in Tuesday’s election. Fresh Democratic trifectas there and elsewhere could encourage more state action to counter recent FCC decisions on net neutrality and privacy, some said. And broadband and net neutrality supporter Phil Weiser will be attorney general in Colorado, where additional local governments cleared ballot initiatives on municipal broadband. Incumbents and Republicans performed strongly in state commissions with elected commissioners.
A federal court rejected a 2014 California law requiring prepaid wireless fees and three California Public Utilities Commission resolutions implementing that law. In a Monday order (in Pacer) granting a MetroPCS motion for summary judgment, the U.S. District Court for Northern California ruled the law and resolutions “conflict with federal law and are therefore preempted and unconstitutional.” MetroPCS asked the court to declare unlawful and stop enforcement of three CPUC resolutions implementing the state's Prepaid Mobile Telephony Service Surcharge Collection Act, which required prepaid wireless customers to pay a surcharge supporting state USF and certain CPUC fees. The company argued the CPUC portion of the surcharge impermissibly assesses interstate voice and broadband data revenue, conflicting with federal law including the Communications Act, the 2000 Mobile Telecom Sourcing Act and the U.S. Constitution's dormant Commerce Clause. The agency said there's no conflict with federal law because the commission used an intrastate allocation factor to remove interstate and international charges from the surcharge base. “The Court agrees with MetroPCS that the usage of a mandatory intrastate allocation factor conflicts with federal law because it deprives carriers of the ability to treat as intrastate for universal service purposes the same revenues that they treat as intrastate for federal USF contributions,” wrote Judge Susan Illston. “By using the intrastate allocation factor as the sole method for assessing the CPUC fees, the CPUC has deprived carriers of the ability to rely on alternative allocation methodologies, such as their actual revenue data.” The court disagreed with CPUC argument that MetroPCS was "judicially estopped" from challenging because it proposed that CPUC adopt an intrastate allocation factor. MetroPCS may challenge because it supported a “reasonable” estimate of the intrastate portion and argued that the CPUC didn’t act reasonably, said Illston. The regulator and MetroPCS parent T-Mobile didn’t comment Tuesday.
Disagreement over VoIP classification is complicating a state pole-attachment rate-setting proceeding. The Vermont Public Utility Commission is mulling a single rate for pole attachments to replace a two-tier system based on occupied space that treats LEC and cable attachments differently. Pole owners resisted cable and CLEC pleas for a lower single rate, in Monday comments emailed to us by the PUC on a petition by the CLEC Association of Northern New England (CANNE) asking the agency amend rules.