The Kansas House Telecom Committee considered if counties should be covered by broadband infrastructure rules like those that apply to cities. The panel heard support for HB-2806 from ISPs at a livestreamed meeting Thursday. HB-2806 would allow telecom, broadband and video service providers to "construct, maintain and operate poles, conduit, cable, switches” and other facilities in counties’ rights of way (ROW). It would require counties to apply ROW access and permit processes “in a nondiscriminatory and competitively neutral manner to all similarly situated providers." That would include fees, required documents for permit applications, permitting time frames and waiver options, the bill said. "No county shall create, enact or erect any discriminatory, unreasonable condition, requirement or barrier for entry into or use of the public right-of-way by a provider." Counties could assess fees for construction permits, excavation and inspection only for reimbursing "the county's reasonable, actual and verifiable costs of managing the public right-of-way,” it said. The bill would also let counties assess repair costs for provider-caused ROW damage and require providers to furnish performance bonds. "We all want to be treated the same [and] fairly,” said Cox Director-Government Affairs Megan Bottenberg. But some Kansas communities have offered benefits to some providers and not others, she said. The “equity-based bill” stops excessive county taxes on broadband while giving explicit authority to collect repair costs for damages and require bonds, said IdeaTek co-founder Daniel Friesen. A rural county once tried to charge his company an excessive $20,000 in permit fees, he said. Requiring counties to explain how their fees are based on cost could reduce litigation, he said. AT&T Kansas State Director Darin Miller supported the bill in written testimony. Kansas Association of Counties General Counsel Jay Hall wrote that the bill's rules for counties would differ slightly from those for cities. "This is particularly important given that HB 2806 would take this issue out of local hands and make it a statewide standard,” Hall said. “If the standard is statewide, should the requirements for cities and counties match?"
A fresh stab at creating a state net neutrality law met industry opposition this week. Connecticut’s joint General Law Committee held a hearing Thursday on a wide-ranging bill (SB-3) that would also require affordable broadband, ban junk fees, require streaming TV prorating and let consumers repair electronics. The legislature’s consumer protection bill “addresses inequities,” said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff (D).
Spreading high-speed internet will remain a key focus for the California Public Utilities Commission in the years ahead, CPUC President Alice Reynolds told Communications Daily during a wide-ranging Q&A. Reynolds addresses broadband funding, affordability issues, state USF and the FCC’s net neutrality rulemaking in written answers to our questions, lightly edited for length and clarity.
Sen. Joe Manchin told us Tuesday he supports Congress allocating funding for the FCC's affordable connectivity program (ACP). "The money's there," but congressional leaders must "get the bill on the floor," the West Virginia Democrat said after a speech at the NARUC meeting in Washington. Later, a NARUC panel said states should learn from Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) problems when setting rules for internet service providers to participate in the broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program.
NARUC’s Telecom Committee approved a proposed resolution Monday aimed at forestalling U.S. phone number exhaustion. Also during state utility regulators’ meeting in Washington, telecom industry officials urged state commissioners to join them in calling on Congress to renew funding for the affordable connectivity program (ACP). Another panel flagged pole attachment issues remaining after a December FCC order (see 2312130044).
AT&T’s nationwide wireless outage last week shows why California regulators shouldn’t relieve the company of carrier of last resort (COLR) obligations, Communications Workers of America said. COLR requires AT&T to make landlines available to anyone who requests them across the state. The hourslong wireless outage (see 2402220058) showed that landlines remain important, CWA District 9 Vice President Frank Arce said Thursday. As such, the California Public Utilities Commission should reject “AT&T’s attempt to cut service to our most vulnerable residents,” he said. An AT&T spokesperson responded Friday, “We are not canceling landline service in California, and none of our California customers will lose access to voice service or 911 service.” The carrier said it's focused on upgrading customers to fiber and wireless technologies that consumers increasingly demand. “No customer will be disconnected, and we’re working with the remaining consumers who use traditional landline service to upgrade to newer technologies.” AT&T is pushing for quick CPUC action on its COLR relief petition (see 2402210038). The carrier disclosed in a Thursday ex parte notice that it plans to meet virtually Tuesday with aides to Commissioner Karen Douglas.
An Ohio court can and should call Google Search a common carrier, the state argued Friday. "Ohio common carrier law needs no expansion … Google Search meets each and every criterion with no need to resort to the creative interpretation that Google proposes." In a separate opposition brief, Google protested that it’s nothing like a common carrier: "Google is not a 'dumb pipe' or 'mere conduit.' Ohio and Google responded to each other’s January cross-motions for summary judgment in case 21-CV-H-06-0274 at the Ohio Court of Common Pleas, Delaware County (see 2401260074). Reply briefs are due March 15 and trial is set for Sept. 3 under the court’s schedule. Judge James Schuck refused to dismiss Ohio’s lawsuit in May 2022, ruling that Ohio “stated a cognizable claim” that Google could be a common carrier (see 2205260057). The Ohio Chamber of Commerce supported the company in a Thursday amicus brief, arguing that Ohio’s attempt to regulate the search company would be “anti-business.” Concerns about how a big tech company participates in public discourse "provide no basis for making a novel exception to well-established common carrier tenets,” wrote the chamber.
A Verizon settlement with California consumer advocates last week resolves just one part of a fight over the carrier’s difficulties migrating Tracfone customers still using non-Verizon networks in California, each of the parties said Friday. The Center for Accessible Technology (CforAT) posted a settlement Thursday with Verizon’s Tracfone and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) in docket A.20-11-001 at the California Public Utilities Commission, as expected (see 2402160019).
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) isn’t ready to ban children younger than 16 from using social media without an opportunity for parental override, he said Thursday. This puts him at odds with many of his state's Republican lawmakers. Earlier in the day, Florida's Senate voted 23-14 to approve HB-1, which would require that websites verify potential users' ages, preventing kids younger than 16 from using social media and stop those younger than 18 from accessing pornography. Many, but not all, Democratic state senators opposed the bill. Later on the floor, senators joined House members in unanimously supporting another measure extending a $1 promotion for broadband attachments through 2028.
Florida senators unanimously supported joining other states that designate mobile phone providers as eligible telecom carriers (ETCs) for the federal Lifeline program. On the floor Wednesday, senators voted 37-0 to pass a bill (SB-478) that would transfer wireless ETC designation powers from the FCC to the Florida Public Service Commission. Later, senators debated a bill (HB-1) that would override parents and ban all kids younger than 16 from getting social media accounts.