New Jersey could soon add cable service-quality requirements, despite companies seeking to reduce regulation. Board of Public Utilities members voted 5-0 Wednesday to propose readopting the state’s Administrative Code Title 14 Chapter 18 rules for cable TV with substantial changes, including new required metrics and reports and changes to pole attachment rates and public, educational and government (PEG) access channel rules.
The cable industry raised fiscal concerns about a broadband bill to update the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF). The Senate Appropriations Committee placed AB-14 in its “suspense file” Monday, a category reserved for bills deemed to be costly and that will be taken up later. The California Cable Telecommunications Association would support AB-14 if amended to address “serious fiscal impacts,” said Vice President-Government Affairs Bernie Orozco at the livestreamed hearing. Some RF safety advocates raised concerns about the bill supporting wireless deployment. Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and other localities supported AB-14. A companion bill (SB-4) is up for vote Thursday in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The CASF bills are nearing final votes (see 2107090049). Orozco later opposed a communications disaster reporting measure (AB-1100) as “duplicative and unnecessary.” The committee placed it on suspense. Other bills moved to that file Monday included AB-41 about agency coordination on conduit deployment, AB-74 to require various California LifeLine enrollment and recertification process changes and the cable-backed AB-1560 on distance learning.
An order saying T-Mobile may have misled the California Public Utilities Commission is “meritless and without basis in fact,” the carrier’s spokesperson said Monday. Dish Network thinks the CPUC is right to hold T-Mobile to “commitments it made under oath while its merger was under review, including that the CDMA network will be operational until July 1, 2023,” a spokesperson said. In the Friday order in docket A.18-07-011, assigned Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen and Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer required T-Mobile to appear at a Sept. 20 9:30 a.m. PDT virtual hearing to “to show cause why it should not be sanctioned” for violating a CPUC rule on “false, misleading, or omitted statements.” T-Mobile told the agency under oath that its CDMA network would be available to Boost customers until they were migrated to Dish Network's LTE or 5G network, that maintaining CDMA service during the Boost migration wouldn't affect T-Mobile's 5G buildout, that all former Sprint customers would have a seamless upgrade during migration and that Dish would have up to three years to complete the Boost migration, the order said. T-Mobile omitted or gave misleading information about PCS spectrum being used to provide service to Boost customers on the CDMA network and the same spectrum would be required for the 5G network buildout, it said. After more investigation, the CPUC might later add charges on “the early retirement of the Sprint LTE network,” the order said. T-Mobile looks “forward to presenting evidence and setting the record straight through the upcoming process,” its spokesperson said. “For months, T-Mobile has been working aggressively to ensure no customer is left behind as we transition” to 5G. DOJ earlier raised “grave concerns” about what T-Mobile soon shuttering its CDMA network may mean for Boost customers (see 2108090008). “DOJ will have the final say but it seems increasingly likely that T-Mobile will have to delay the shutdown of CDMA,” Lightshed Partners analyst Walt Piecyk emailed Monday. Dish CEO Charlie Ergen noted the CPUC show-cause order Monday at the Technology Policy Institute Forum in Aspen, Colorado (see 2108160057).
Connecticut should adopt one-touch, make-ready (OTMR) requirements, local governments and the telecom industry commented Thursday at the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). Union workers and some pole owners advised caution in the agency's ongoing pole-attachment proceeding. The Florida Public Service Commission expects to develop rules soon to reverse preempt FCC jurisdiction over pole attachments. Several other states are also mulling attachment issues.
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska should propose connections-based contribution for state USF, said Matanuska Telephone Association (MTA) representatives in a presentation at the Regulatory Commission of Alaska’s virtual Wednesday meeting. Adopting a flat surcharge of about $2.20 monthly per voice connection would stabilize the fund and generate about $25 million in funding, said consultant and former FCC Wireline Bureau Deputy Chief Carol Mattey. Nebraska, New Mexico, Maine and Utah previously took that approach, she said. The proposed change should bring in enough money to restore Alaska USF distributions to frozen 2016 levels, said Kemppel Huffman’s Dean Thompson. MTA recommends independent governance of the state fund by either issuing a request for proposals to find a third-party auditor or restructuring the Alaska Universal Service Administrative Co. board to have independent members rather than telecom industry members as it does now, said Mattey. Allowing companies that contribute to and receive money from the fund to also administer it is unique to Alaska, she said. MTA plans to formally submit its proposal by Sept. 1, said Director-Legal, Regulatory and Government Affairs Ryan Ponder. RCA Chairman Bob Pickett said he wants to resolve AUSF changes well before the fund sunsets June 30, 2023, and expects an active fall in the AUSF docket (R-21-001). The Oklahoma Corporation Commission last week adopted connections-based contribution on an interim basis (see 2108050049).
A sudden transition in New York governors could affect how the state spends federal infrastructure and pandemic rescue dollars tagged for broadband, said state observers after Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced his resignation Tuesday, effective in two weeks. With Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) succeeding him, some predicted a change in style from a governor who they said had outsize influence over the New York Public Service Commission.
California regulators should reject prison-phone provider claims that a competitive market is already bringing reduced intrastate rates, consumer groups said in Monday reply comments in docket R.20-10-002. They responded to Global Tel*Link (GTL) and Securus telling the California Public Utilities Commission earlier this month that proposed limits on inmate calling service (ICS) rates and some fees are illegal (see 2108030041). A 7 cent cap would be “just and reasonable,” said the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office (PAO). GTL and Securus arguments that the interim rules wouldn't allow them to recover costs are “invalid,” the PAO said. It plans to meet by videoconference Thursday with aides to President Marybel Batjer and Commissioner Darcie Houck, and Friday with aides to Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen, the public advocate said in filings Monday and Tuesday. The Center for Accessible Technology urged the CPUC to reject ICS provider arguments that they lack market power. “That ... providers cannot set prices as high as they might like is not evidence that the market is competitive.” The proposed decision “properly views the market through the lens of the end-user, who has no choice of IPCS [incarcerated persons calling services] service provider,” replied The Utility Reform Network: Provider “arguments claim theoretical negotiation dynamics and restrictions on rate changes within the RFP process but lack the end-user perspective entirely.” The Prison Policy Initiative said “numerous factors other than market competition can lead to lower calling rates: facilities may demand or encourage carriers to offer lower rates; legislative bodies may require lower rates; carriers or facilities may simply want the administrative ease of a uniform rate structure for inter- and intrastate calling; carriers may lower voice calling rates and compensate by boosting revenue through unregulated services that are bundled in the same contract.” A 7 cent rate “is feasible for all facilities ... based on existing lower rates in facilities with populations less than 500 people” in other states, including local jails in Maryland, New Jersey and Washington state, said the Californians for Jail and Prison Phone Justice Coalition. Providers repeated their opposition to the interim plan. “The arbitrarily low single-rate cap and limits on ancillary service fees are unworkable and unlawful,” and would “undermine the substantial progress” made through competition, commented GTL. The CPUC may vote Aug. 19 on the draft order.
Oklahoma adopted a connections-based contribution method for state USF on an interim basis Thursday. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted 2-0, with a concerned third commissioner abstaining, for a proposed order to replace the 6.28% revenue-based monthly fee with a $1.14 per connection surcharge. In Texas, state senators are pushing Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and the Public Utility Commission to act before rates spike for rural customers. Alaska, California and Oregon are mulling changes.
Inmate calling service providers rejected proposed California limits on intrastate rates and some fees. The California Public Utilities Commission received comments Monday on an interim order, up for a possible Aug. 19 vote, that would include a cap of 7 cents per minute on intrastate rates for debit, prepaid and collect calls (see 2107130047). Consumer groups supported the plan and urged the CPUC to next seek ways to reduce video call and text-messaging costs. Also, the CPUC teed up implementation of the state’s $6 billion broadband law.
T-Mobile asked the California Public Utilities Commission to delay a possible status conference on Dish Network’s CDMA complaint at least until after Dish modifies its petition to address the impact of its $5 billion AT&T agreement (see 2107190003). T-Mobile doesn’t think the conference is needed but said it should be held at the earliest the week of Aug. 16, the carrier Monday emailed Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer through the service list for docket A.18-07-011. Dish replied that it disagreed with T-Mobile’s request except for scheduling the conference for that Aug. 16 week. The companies clashed over the weekend about the AT&T agreement. Dish never told the CPUC the company was in talks with AT&T “or the potential ramifications of the agreement on its migration efforts,” T-Mobile wrote Friday to Commissioner Cliff Rechtschaffen. The timing suggests Dish had “ulterior motives” as it complained about the CDMA shutdown to the CPUC, T-Mobile said. “At a minimum, the timing suggests DISH was focused on negotiating this agreement with AT&T, and thus distracted from executing on CDMA migration efforts over the ten months that have elapsed since T-Mobile first provided DISH with notice of the CDMA sunset. It is also possible that DISH has been purposely dragging its feet in upgrading its Boost CDMA customers so that it can save itself money by finalizing the agreement with AT&T and then transitioning those customers directly to AT&T’s network when it is ready to accept Boost customers, rather than incurring the costs of transitioning them to T-Mobile’s network first.” Dish wrote Saturday to Rechtschaffen that T-Mobile’s arguments lack merit. The AT&T agreement doesn’t alter customer harm that would result from T-Mobile prematurely shutting down the old network, said Dish: AT&T's network doesn’t support CDMA.