Let electric utilities focus on wildfire efforts, said some comments posted Tuesday. The California Public Utilities Commission is considering pilot projects by investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in unserved areas as part of its broadband rulemaking in docket R.20-09-001. Because it's critical IOUs "safeguard infrastructure from igniting catastrophic wildfires, the Commission should not overburden electrical utilities and slow that urgent work,” commented Rural County Representatives of California. The Utility Reform Network agreed: “The CPUC should not require the IOUs to undertake work to expand broadband infrastructure that would divert resources from utility wildfire risk mitigation or service restoration.” Charter Communications wants to ensure there isn’t any overbuilding. Southern California Edison’s proposal for Ventura County is in Charter territory, Charter said. Focus on supporting ISPs deploying broadband, suggested AT&T. Utilities appear reluctant about helping, so don't rely on their "substantial participation,” said Center for Accessible Technology.
A judge sought to push along discovery in DOJ and states' antitrust case against Google. At a livestreamed status conference Tuesday, Judge Amit Mehta of U.S. District Court in Washington directed parties to file a joint statement by 2 p.m. Friday on where things stand on parties’ disagreement over the scope of a DOJ deposition notice about market share. Google attorney John Schmidtlein and DOJ Civil Division trial attorney Kenneth Dintzer said they’re meeting Wednesday. Mehta ordered Google to provide “dates certain” by close-of-business Friday for a deposition witness to appear on states’ request about how Google analyzes session logs showing consumers’ journey through the search engine. Mehta also sought updates by then on Google disputes with Yelp and Microsoft about the scope of Google’s document requests. Google complained Microsoft production remains sluggish, in a Tuesday filing. Microsoft objected to using “Bing” and other Google-requested search strings for the document production. Mehta said they don’t “strike me as out of bounds.” He urged Google to look harder at adjusting proximity connectors, which measure how closely words appear in a document, as a possible way to reduce burdens on Microsoft. Parties should reach agreement on technology-assisted review to increase efficiencies, he said. Mehta wants to see Microsoft’s pace increase through September, with a goal of finishing by mid-October. The judge last month set Sept. 30 for Apple to produce about 1.5 million documents DOJ requested (see 2108190041). Mehta said he won’t order Google to turn over to DOJ certain information, including privileged logs and materials produced for past investigations. The jurist said the request was too broad and maybe not entirely relevant. Mehta resolved another disagreement over sharing Google documents about employees’ self-assessments and performance reviews. DOJ asked the court to reject Google’s request to limit distribution of such documents to eight people because it didn’t account for IT professionals, experts and others. Mehta said such tight protections could apply to entire documents, but snippets relevant to deposition could be more widely shared. The next three status hearings are Sept. 28 at 11 a.m., Oct. 29 at 3 p.m. and Nov. 30 at 11 a.m., Mehta said.
New Orleans and nearby Louisiana parishes faced 911 outages Monday after Hurricane Ida hit, local authorities reported. Ida caused “significant impacts” to AT&T's Louisiana network due to “massive power outages and storm damage,” the carrier said Monday. The FCC disaster information reporting system (DIRS) was activated Sunday for affected counties in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Staffers were deployed “to assess the post-landfall impact to communications networks and to assist in efforts to restore service as quickly as possible,” acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Saturday before landfall: “We know the reality of the danger from this kind of hurricane all too well.”
California’s public advocate wants a delay in updating state LifeLine wireless minimum service standards until the California Public Utilities Commission considers the impact of the federal Lifeline MSS increasing Dec. 1 to 18 GB. By failing to acknowledge the federal MSS increase, the CPUC's Aug. 6 proposed decision could mean customers lose federal support, warned the agency's independent Public Advocates Office (PAO) in comments posted Friday. California’s proposal also includes automating the renewal eligibility process and updating specific service amounts. AT&T raised concerns about how much the state plans to replace federal support for wireline services that don’t meet federal broadband minimum standards.
Facing consumer advocate concerns in California, AT&T said Wednesday it will delay migrating residential landline customers to Frontier Communications in areas of the state where AT&T currently resells Frontier's ILEC service. The carrier originally set Friday as the date for moving to Frontier any customers who didn’t make an alternative selection. AT&T is seeking to discontinue residential service in Frontier territory and relinquish its eligible telecom commission designation this fall (see 2108030041). “As Communications Division Staff has directed, AT&T Corp. will begin migrating customers 30 days after” the carrier mails a third customer notice, which awaits staff approval, the carrier told the California Public Utilities Commission in a Wednesday filing (docket A.21-05-007). The letter will be co-branded with Frontier and include information on LifeLine renewals, it said. The original Friday termination date became “increasingly more concerning with wildfires and Red Flag warning in certain parts of the state,” said The Utility Reform Network (TURN), Center for Accessible Technology and the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office in a separate statement in the same filing. They raised concerns about possible impacts to California LifeLine users, people with disabilities and medical alert customers. AT&T assured the commission the transition “will be a seamless process that will ensure residential service customers do not lose essential local voice service.” Since AT&T service is "provided under a UNE-P [Unbundled Network Element-Platform] arrangement by Frontier, customers ... will be served with the same network they are on today,” it said. "Frontier will not need to dispatch personnel or equipment, and residential service customers will not be charged disconnection or activation fees due to the migration.” Frontier already handles trouble and repair tickets, AT&T added. The new transition time frame isn’t certain because the CPUC “is looking at this closely and continues its review of the transfer,” including concerns raised by consumer groups, emailed TURN telecommunications staff attorney Ashley Salas. AT&T "continue[s] to work with all applicable regulatory bodies to determine the effective date to no longer resell home phone service in California," a spokesperson emailed Thursday. "Once approved, a very small number of our customers’ services will be transferred to Frontier."
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will investigate how Frontier Communications investment plans could affect service quality, decided commissioners at a partially virtual Thursday meeting. The PUC voted 5-0 to proceed with a broad inquiry into the meaning of the company’s “virtual separation.” Commissioners resisted Frontier officials' efforts to narrow the probe’s scope.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio lacks discretionary authority to waive payphone rules for AT&T, commissioners decided at a livestreamed meeting Wednesday. Despite one member saying he’s sympathetic to AT&T, commissioners unanimously denied the telco's motion to waive a requirement that it provide a pay telephone access line and local usage to payphone service providers upon request. It makes sense to change policy, with payphone demand dwindling, but the statute doesn’t give PUCO leeway to waive the rule, said Commissioner Daniel Conway. “Our hands seem to be tied.” Other parts of the same law, including on 911 and telecom relay service, remain relevant, he noted. AT&T will determine next steps after reviewing the order, a spokesperson said. The Ohio commission unanimously voted for two other items involving a 2019 telecom deregulation law. Commissioners supported seeking comment by Sept. 1 and replies by Sept. 10 on draft rules on allowing ILECs to forego carrier of last resort obligations. Also, PUCO adopted an order requiring ILECs to file information so the commission can count basic local exchange service lines for a report required by the 2019 law.
Two West Virginia delegates relayed constituent complaints about Altice’s Suddenlink Communications at a West Virginia Public Service Commission hearing livestreamed Tuesday. Del. John Kelly (R) said one constituent complained it took five visits for Suddenlink to figure out what was wrong after a utility bucket truck pulled down a neighborhood cable line. Another Kelly constituent said Suddenlink installed internet but not telephone service and an installer didn't return for 21 days to connect the phone, the delegate said. Kelly also complained about Suddenlink removing two TV stations from its lineup and closing a call center in his county. The company should broadcast the West Virginia Legislature live, he added. Del. Jim Barach (D) thinks “competition is the key for what we need to get done,” he said. With prices going up, constituents want a choice of providers -- and fiber, said Barach: “Our internet access is so wanting here.” The West Virginia PSC invited the public to multiple hearings this week as the commission considers possible penalties and requirements; the company has said it’s working hard to enhance service (see 2107010065).
A New Hampshire RF safety bill in development for next year would seek 1,600-foot wireless equipment setbacks and periodic measurements of wireless emissions, said author Rep. Patrick Abrami (R) in an interview. The possible bill follows a November report by Abrami and others on a state 5G commission that said the FCC could be ignoring wireless RF dangers due to industry influence (see 2011020046). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently remanded 2019 RF safety rules to the FCC.
California Public Utilities Commission members unanimously supported reducing inmate calling services rates, at a virtual Thursday meeting. Commissioners voted 5-0 to adopt a proposed interim ICS order capping intrastate rates at 7 cents per minute for debit, prepaid and collect calls, and prohibiting some fees. ICS providers will have 45 days to reduce rates. A day earlier, at the first meeting of the California Middle-Mile Advisory Committee, state legislators questioned the CPUC’s approach to locating nodes of an upcoming open-access network.