Adam Bender

The California Public Utilities Commission set next steps for foster youth and broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) programs through two 4-0 votes at a livestreamed meeting Thursday. The vote on extending the CPUC’s current foster youth pilot program beyond July came after multiple delays as the agency and stakeholders considered how to ensure a seamless transition. And even with the first volume of California’s BEAD plan done, much work remains to achieve maximum broadband across the state, California commissioners said.

Minnesota won’t craft a law that might put the state's $652 million allocation from NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program in jeopardy, Senate Broadband Committee Chair Aric Putnam (D) pledged shortly after midnight Tuesday. Up late considering a labor budget bill that included an industry-opposed broadband safety proposal, senators voted 35-32 to reject amendments from Sen. Gene Dornink (R) that would have scrapped the worker safety plan.

A Minnesota lawmaker and a labor group pushed back Monday against the telecom industry's opposition to advancing a proposal on broadband workforce safety. The state's Senate planned to weigh the measure as part of a labor omnibus (HF-5242), but senators hadn’t voted by our deadline. The Minnesota Cable Association (MCA), Minnesota Telecom Alliance (MTA) and the Wireless ISP Association (WISPA) warned Gov. Tim Walz (D) that the proposal would discourage carriers from seeking federal broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) and other high-speed internet grants.

Vermont’s net neutrality law seems in good shape legally following two significant, late-April decisions by the FCC and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said experts on the statute. ISP groups must decide what to do with their 2018 lawsuit at U.S. District Court of Vermont now that the case can resume following the 2nd Circuit ruling.

Lumen disagreed with a local 911 authority on whether the Colorado Public Utilities Commission should be required to investigate all “apparent” outages of basic emergency services (BES). Separately, the Colorado PUC opened a rulemaking on incarcerated people’s communications services (IPCS). Current state rules on 911 outages say that PUC staff “shall commence an informal investigation regarding each apparent basic emergency service outage meeting criteria established by the 9-1-1 Advisory Task Force.” The PUC should change “shall” to “may,” Lumen commented Wednesday in docket 23R-0577T. Making it optional wouldn’t reduce the commission’s oversight authority, the carrier argued. “It would simply allow the Commission the discretion to initiate an investigation.” Use of the word “apparent” in the current rule “sweeps within its scope occurrences that are not in fact BES outages yet grants the Commission no discretion,” said Lumen: That’s inefficient at best, the company said, stressing it’s not saying the commission shouldn’t investigate BES outages but instead is saying a probe might not always be warranted. “For example, a fiber cut by a third party that results in an interruption of BES services should not always require an investigation.” However, the Boulder Regional Emergency Telephone Service Authority argued that the commission “would be delinquent if it did not require investigation of apparent outages of [BES] to identify means of avoiding future outages and better mitigating or more expeditiously remediating future outages which do occur.” Also, the Boulder authority noted that “apparent outages subject to investigation are only those meeting criteria of the 9-1-1 Advisory Task Force,” which considers factors such as when an outage affects multiple public safety answering points, lasts more than four hours or repeats in the same area over a short period of time. Meanwhile, the Colorado PUC sought comments by May 31 and replies by June 14 on an NPRM to change to change IPCS rules in response to two recent state laws. A 2021 law included requirements for reports and testing, while a 2023 law expanded the definition of covered communications services to include video calls, email and messaging, said the Monday notice.

LTD Broadband asked to partly relinquish its eligible telecom carrier designation in Minnesota due to the FCC canceling the company’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support. In a Wednesday letter to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, CEO Corey Hauer said the FCC decision “has left us disappointed and puzzled, as [it] seems to contradict the very purpose of RDOF: to connect unserved and underserved Americans.” LTD seeks to give up ETC status only for RDOF, not for the Connect America Fund Phase II, he clarified. Hauer’s letter marks a turnaround from November when he told the state commission that he still wanted to defend his company and keep the ETC designation (see 2311160039). State telecom and electric industry groups had asked the PUC to revoke the company’s ETC certificate (docket 22-221). The Minnesota Telecom Alliance “is pleased to see this contested case come to closure,” MTA President Brent Christensen said Thursday. “LTD’s decision … is very appropriate given the recent decisions of the FCC.” Hauer told us in an email Thursday that his company “doesn't intend to relinquish ETC designation in any other state.” It's doing so in Minnesota, said Hauer, because MTA and the Minnesota Rural Electric Association (MREA), supported by Minnesota’s attorney general office and commerce department, “refused to pause” the proceeding to revoke the broadband company's ETC status while LTD challenged the FCC decision at the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. “They did so under the false premise that we were in imminent danger of being awarded RDOF funds without … saying how much they hate competition and how only MTA or MREA members are capable of building broadband networks," he said. "I am not going to let them waste more of our time and money.” If LTD wins against the FCC on appeal, “I expect to aggressively build our RDOF areas in entirety,” the CEO added.

Providers see no need to continue a Massachusetts probe into incarcerated people’s calling services (IPCS), they said in reply comments Tuesday at the Department of Telecommunications and Cable (docket 11-16). The state made IPCS calls free last year (see 2308090063), “resolving any rate-related issues that Petitioners originally claimed justified initiation of the investigation,” said Securus. “Petitioners’ unverified equipment availability concerns and related complaints seek to raise new issues that do not warrant continuation of this proceeding.” ViaPath agreed that the free calls law means the proceeding should end. However, in March 27 comments, petitioners -- who identified themselves as recipients of collect calls from prisoners -- flagged continuing problems with prison communications after the 2023 law. “Concerns remain that the infrastructure provided by [IPCS] providers must be sufficient to account for increased calling volume with free calls." For example, the group hasn’t verified that calling-enabled tablets are available everywhere, petitioners said. Also, some have complained about the quality of Wi-Fi and headphones provided with Securus tablets, it said.

Pennsylvania lawmakers should reject a plan deregulating incumbent local exchange carriers, the state’s Consumer Advocate Patrick Cicero said Tuesday. Yet with two 7-4 party-line votes, majority Republicans on the Senate Communications Committee advanced a deregulation bill (SB-85) with an amendment that says the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission lacks VoIP and broadband authority. The Democratic minority -- which controls the governor’s office and has a slim House majority -- raised concerns that the bill would harm consumers.

California aims to quickly expand broadband access using a large influx of state and federal funding, California Public Utilities Commission officials said at a virtual workshop Monday. "Eliminating the digital divide could not be more urgent than it is right now,” said Commissioner Darcie Houck, who is assigned to the agency’s California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) docket. "Crossing the finish line will take hard work and creativity from government, communities, carriers and all of our stakeholders." Since it was created in 2008, CASF has awarded about $400 million to more than 1,100 projects, including $40 million to 187 projects in 2023 alone, Houck said. When the deadline closed earlier this month for the $750 million Broadband Loan Loss Reserve Fund (BLLRF) program, the CPUC had received about 400 applications requesting $430 million, she said. The program is meant to fund nonprofits, local and tribal governments' broadband infrastructure deployment. The agency plans to announce BLLRF awards in Q2 and Q3 this year, she said. While there remain “barriers and inequalities” with broadband access in California, CPUC Deputy Director Maria Ellis said she is optimistic the state can soon close the digital “chasm.” However, Ellis noted that price is one key challenge. The federal affordable connectivity program helped reduce costs, but its possible sunset could mean low-income households will again face high bills soon, she said.

The 9th U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court that denied preliminary injunction against the California Public Utilities Commission shifting to a per line surcharge for the state Universal Service Fund. T-Mobile’s Assurance Wireless had argued that the state must align with the FCC’s revenue-based method for federal USF. But on March 31 last year, the U.S. District Court for Northern California decided not to block the CPUC’s April 1 change. The 9th Circuit heard arguments on an appeal in October (see 2310170042). "The carriers have failed to show a likelihood of success on their claim that the access line rule is 'inconsistent with' the FCC rule,” Judge Ryan Nelson wrote in Friday’s opinion, which Judges Jacqueline Nguyen and Eugene Siler joined (case 23-15490). The court referred to the Communications Act's Section 254(f), which prohibits USF rules that are "inconsistent" with FCC rules. Inconsistent doesn’t mean different, Nelson wrote. "The access line rule differs from the FCC’s rule funding interstate universal service programs. But the carriers have not shown that it burdens those programs, and they have thus failed to show that they are likely to succeed on their claim that it is inconsistent with those rules." Also, the court rejected T-Mobile’s claim that the surcharge rule is preempted because it's inequitable and discriminatory. "The carriers argue that they are harmed more than local exchange carriers,” but the CPUC rule treats all telecom technologies “the same and, if anything, is more equitable than the prior rule, under which most of the surcharges came only from ever-dwindling landline services,” Nelson said. The CPUC’s "course correction" is "a fair response to a real problem,” he added. “In a world of ever-evolving telecommunications technologies, competitive neutrality must allow some play in the joints. To hold otherwise would hamstring California’s ability to satisfy its statutory mandate of providing universal service." T-Mobile also argued the change was discriminatory because the CPUC rule treats providers who get federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) support differently from those in the state LifeLine program. But the court found differences between the programs and noted that companies in ACP have the option of joining LifeLine. The decision "affirms that the CPUC's surcharge rule is consistent with federal law," said a commission spokesperson. "The CPUC will continue to utilize the surcharge to ensure consumers have safe, reliable, affordable, and universal access to telecommunications services." T-Mobile didn’t immediately comment.